RAPID: Impacts and recovery of natural and managed coastal dunes on a South Carolina barrier island from Hurricane Ian

University Of South Carolina At Columbia, Columbia SC

Investigators

Abstract

Sand dunes are a critical component of the coastal-aeolian geomorphic system and are a coastline defense mechanism in management practice. Given the anthropogenic actions on the natural and surrounding built environment, it is becoming commonplace to maintain the dune systems artificially. These ‘managed’ dunes frequently comprise nourished sand with intentionally planted vegetation. However, little is known about contemporary land-use dynamics of these systems, despite the relationships to historically studied concepts in aeolian geomorphology (i.e., impacts of roughness elements on aeolian transport). This RAPID project will allow the opportunity to collect time-sensitive field-based data to quantify Hurricane Ian's biogeomorphic impacts and recovery on a managed and natural dune system and to compare those measurements to the pre-storm conditions. The project will enhance diversity in STEM by providing support in an EPSCoR state for a principal investigator and graduate student who are both from underrepresented groups in the field of geomorphology and land-use dynamics. The investigators will conduct one year of field-based data collection to measure the topographic characteristics and management treatments on coastal dunes. The field effort will include Terrestrial Laster Scanning and vegetation surveys. These surveys will build on a dataset collected before Hurricane Ian along South Carolina barrier islands. The investigators will use the collected data to test hypotheses related to the biogeomorphic response of managed and natural dune systems, the recovery trajectories of these dunes, and the accretion rates on managed dunes with and without fences. This project could lead to future process-based research on the influence of extreme events on dune formation and evolution under different land-use scenarios. The results could contribute both to the scientific and management communities. The project will involve stakeholder meetings with South Carolina Beach Advocates. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.