WAVE ATTENUATION AND SEDIMENT TRANSPORT MONITORING OF LIVING SHORELINES IN THE DELAWARE BAY, U.S.

Abstract

Living shorelines are considered a more natural approach to shoreline stabilization for low-energy coastlines in contrast to traditional “hard” shoreline armoring methods (i.e. bulkheads). Living shorelines often vary by design and materials, which are optimized for site-specific coastal and environmental conditions, such as wave climate, tidal range, sunlight exposure, etc.; however, the core benefits of all engineered living shorelines are typically the same: reduce shoreline erosion; enhance marine, intertidal, or backshore habitat; and increase resiliency to storm surge and/or sea level rise. While the general benefits of living shorelines are well known, project-specific technical data (i.e. percent of wave energy attenuation, shoreline advancement rates) documenting the effectiveness of living shorelines is more sparse. Moreover, monitoring equipment and analysis techniques required to capture the fine-detailed technical data can prove to be cost and/or labor intensive.