Shoreline assessment of Jefferson County, Texas
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Abstract
Shoreline erosion is an issue of economic and environmental concern on the Texas coast. Texas State Highway 87, located in Jefferson County, Texas, has been repeatedly destroyed by storms and rebuilt in the past 50 years. Reconstruction of State Highway 87 cannot be successfully achieved without an exact assessment of shoreline erosion. This report describes a shoreline assessment to obtain a comprehensive data set that will be used to define the coastal erosion problem and assist in the reconstruction of the roadway. Eight field surveys were conducted that included offshore survey and beach survey (beach profiles). The offshore system utilizes a Real-Time Kinematic Differential Global Positioning System (RTK-DGPS) mounted on a personal watercraft and integrated with a survey quality echo sounder. The beach survey utilizes RTK-DGPS equipment carried by the surveyor in a backpack. The system is an accurate, mobile and efficient method to obtain beach profiles.
The two surveys (beach and offshore surveys) are combined to provide a complete beach profile. Data gathered from beach profile surveys enabled the calculation of sediment erosion or accretion rate and direction.