Project Title: Nearshore and Inner Shelf Controls on Regional-Scale Coastal Erosion
Mendenhall Fellow: David Stolper, (508) 457 2356, dstolper@usgs.gov
Duty Station: Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Start Date: June 9, 2002
Education: Ph.D. (2002), Marine Science, University of Sydney
Research Advisors: Jeff List, (508) 457 2343, jlist@usgs.gov; Rob Thieler, (508) 457 2350, rthieler@usgs.gov
Project Description: Coastal management and engineering requires identification of low-order (large-scale) coastal change to determine whether shoreline and seabed movements involve systematic trends. Such trends may cause chronic problems that require long-term planning and major engineering interventions. Morphological change entailing temporary fluctuations may cause acute problems but these generally require only local remedial measures. Coastal management strategies are very different for the two types of problems and usually involve different levels of expense. If estimates of the long-term change cannot be quantified then it seems unlikely that predictions will discriminate adequately between chronic and acute coastal change.Dave's research focuses on the development of a three-dimensional morphological-behaviour model to simulate the evolution of coastal sand bodies to variation in sea level, longshore sediment transport and estuarine deposition. The model will initially be used to simulate the evolution of the barrier coastline from Cape Henry to Cape Hatteras (North Carolina). Existing geological data will be integrated with the model to determine mean trends of barrier evolution during the post-glacial marine transgression and to predict shoreline change resulting from anticipated rates of sea-level rise.
Previous Profile Project Profiles Next Profile 
<URL:http://geology.usgs.gov/postdoc/profiles/stolper.html>
Maintained by: Eastern Publications Group Web Team
Last updated 21-August-2002 (krw)