Statistical modeling of historic shore erosion rates on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland

The laboratory investigation was undertaken as part of a shore protection demonstration program sponsored by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. Subsequently funding was also provided by the Sea Grant Program. The laboratory work is being done in the Lake Hydraulics Laboratory, a facility of the Department of Civil Engineering of the University of Michigan. The field demonstration program consists of 19 field installations at locations on Lakes Michigan, Huron and Superior. The laboratory program was planned to supplement information from the field installations by testing over a wider range of variables and to test procedures not included in the field program. This program has also proven to be useful in the demonstration of shore erosion processes to groups concerned with shore problems. Although erosion rates determined in a model cannot be converted quantitatively to nature it was reasoned that if natural shore erosion processes could be simulated and if repeatable erosion rates could be produced in the model the results could help to evaluate the relative effectiveness of many protective methods. The advantages of using a model are the much lower cost compared with field installations, the control over such variables as wave height and water level and the speed with which results can be obtained.

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Influences of Wave Climate and Sea Level on Shoreline Erosion Rates in the Maryland Chesapeake Bay

Estuaries and Coasts ◽

10.1007/s12237-017-0257-7 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 41 (S1) ◽

pp. 19-37 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Lawrence P. Sanford ◽

Jia Gao

Keyword(s):

Chesapeake Bay ◽

Sea Level ◽

Spatial Patterns ◽

Wave Model ◽

Wave Climate ◽

Shoreline Erosion ◽

Wave Power ◽

Mass Rate ◽

Erosion Rates ◽

And Sea Level

Abstract We investigated spatial correlations between wave forcing, sea level fluctuations, and shoreline erosion in the Maryland Chesapeake Bay (CB), in an attempt to identify the most important relationships and their spatial patterns. We implemented the Simulating WAves Nearshore (SWAN) model and a parametric wave model from the USEPA Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) to simulate wave climate in CB from 1985 to 2005. Calibrated sea level simulations from the CBP hydrodynamic model over the same time period were also acquired. The separate and joint statistics of waves and sea level were investigated for the entire CB. Spatial patterns of sea level during the high wave events most important for erosion were dominated by local north-south winds in the upper Bay and by remote coastal forcing in the lower Bay. We combined wave and sea level data sets with estimates of historical shoreline erosion rates and shoreline characteristics compiled by the State of Maryland at two different spatial resolutions to explore the factors affecting erosion. The results show that wave power is the most significant influence on erosion in the Maryland CB, but that many other local factors are also implicated. Marshy shorelines show a more homogeneous, approximately linear relationship between wave power and erosion rates, whereas bank shorelines are more complex. Marshy shorelines appear to erode faster than bank shorelines, for the same wave power and bank height. A new expression for the rate of shoreline erosion is proposed, building on previous work. The proposed new relationship expresses the mass rate of shoreline erosion as a locally linear function of the difference between applied wave power and a threshold wave power, multiplied by a structure function that depends on the ratio of water depth to bank height.

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Increasing Shoreline Erosion Rates with Decreasing Tidal Range in the Virginia Chesapeake Bay

Chesapeake Science ◽

10.2307/1350594 ◽

1977 ◽

Vol 18 (4) ◽

pp. 383 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Peter S. Rosen

Keyword(s):

Chesapeake Bay ◽

Tidal Range ◽

Shoreline Erosion ◽

Erosion Rates

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Between ‘Savage Man’ and ‘Most Faithful Englishman’ Manteo and the Early Anglo-Indian Exchange, 1584–1590

Itinerario ◽

10.1017/s0165115300044545 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 24 (2) ◽

pp. 146-169 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Michael Leroy Oberg

Keyword(s):

North Carolina ◽

Chesapeake Bay ◽

One Year ◽

Anglo Indian

In August of 1587 Manteo, an Indian from Croatoan Island, joined a group of English settlers in an attack on the native village of Dasemunkepeuc, located on the coast of present-day North Carolina. These colonists, amongst whom Manteo lived, had landed on Roanoke Island less than a month before, dumped there by a pilot more interested in hunting Spanish prize ships than in carrying colonists to their intended place of settlement along the Chesapeake Bay. The colonists had hoped to re-establish peaceful relations with area natives, and for that reason they relied upon Manteo to act as an interpreter, broker, and intercultural diplomat. The legacy of Anglo-Indian bitterness remaining from Ralph Lane's military settlement, however, which had hastily abandoned the island one year before, was too great for Manteo to overcome. The settlers found themselves that summer in the midst of hostile Indians.

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