Assessing the Effectiveness of Nourishment in Decadal Barrier Island Morphological Resilience

Nourishment has shown to be an effective method for short-term storm protection along barrier islands and sandy beaches by reducing flooding, wave attack erosion. However, the ability of nourishment mitigate effects storms sea level rise (SLR) improve coastal resilience over decadal time scales is not well understood. This study uses integrated models storm-driven hydrodynamics, morphodynamics post-storm dune recovery assess effectiveness beach on island morphological a 30-year period, accounting moderate amount SLR. Results show that at end 30 years, contributes maintaining volumes increasing height width compared with no-action scenario (i.e., no nourishment, only natural recovery). During where collision regime was dominant, higher sand were lost from wider in than scenario. stronger storms, reduced overtopping scenario, allowing maintain width. Additionally, particularly breaching during back-to-back occurring same year.