Sea-level rise, storms, and fate of barrier islands: Lessons from more than fifty years of research

Naresh Kumar

doi:10.51710/jias.v43iI.423

Authors

Naresh Kumar Growth Oil and Gas

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.51710/jias.v43iI.423

Keywords:

Keywords: barriers, shoreface retreat, barrier drowning, sea-level rise

Abstract

More than 2,000 barrier islands line the world's shorelines. Along the US East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico, barrier islands line almost two-thirds of the coastline. About half of the barriers worldwide are being eroded mostly as a result of sea-level rise. As a consequence, one of two scenarios might happen: the barriers regress landward as the sea-level rises (shoreface retreat) or the barrier may be overwhelmed by waves during a major storm event and may be "drowned in place". Both of these scenarios have taken place along the US East Coast during the last 8,000 years of sea-level rise.

Sea levels may rise by up to a meter by the end of the 21st century, thus endangering coastlines worldwide. Moreover, during the last few decades the population living full time or part time on these islands has increased tremendously. While the impulse is to “replenish or restore the beach” after each major natural disaster, the results are always short term. In the long term, only engineered retreat towards the land or complete abandandoment might be the only solutions. However, rather than responding to each natural disaster one-by-one as it affects the barriers, a national plan, with state-, and local-level buy-in needs to be implemented now.

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References

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