Characteristic shoreline change patterns identified using EOF analysis

Thomas O. Herrington, Jon K. Miller, Robert G. Dean

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

The method of empirical orthogonal functions (EOF) or principal component analysis (PCA) is used to investigate the spatial and temporal variability of shoreline data sets from Duck, North Carolina, the Gold Coast, Australia, and the United States Pacific Northwest. The majority of the variability at each site (nearly 95%) is represented by the first four eigenfunctions, which generally highlight the influence of shore-perpendicular features on the nearshore morphology. Interesting, longshore periodic features, perhaps related to the presence of sand waves, are identified at both Duck and the Gold Coast, while boundary effects related to natural headlands and navigational structures/entrances dominate the longshore variability in the Pacific Northwest. The temporal eigenfunctions associated with these longshore variations are compared with several parameters that are frequently used to characterize the nearshore environment. Correlations are sought between the individual modes of shoreline change and the local conditions. The nearshore parameters considered include the wave energy (E), the cross-shore and longshore wave energy fluxes (Fx and Fy), the wave steepness (Ho/Lo), the non-dimensional fall velocity parameter (Ω), the profile parameter (P), the surf-similarity parameter (ζ), and a surfzone Froude number (Fr). The strongest correlations were obtained between the monthly means of several of the forcing parameters and the temporal coefficients of longshore uniform modes of shoreline change.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 30th International Conference on Coastal Engineering 2006, ICCE 2006
Pages3516-3528
Number of pages13
DOIs
StatePublished - 2007
Event30th International Conference on Coastal Engineering, ICCE 2006 - San Diego, CA, United States
Duration: 3 Sep 20068 Sep 2006

Publication series

NameProceedings of the Coastal Engineering Conference
ISSN (Print)0161-3782

Conference

Conference30th International Conference on Coastal Engineering, ICCE 2006
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CitySan Diego, CA
Period3/09/068/09/06

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