Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Morphodynamics Of Shell Key And Mullet Key Barrier Islands: Their Origin And Development, Zachary J. Westfall

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Shell Key and Mullet Key are two sandy barrier islands on the West Central Florida coast near the mouth of Tampa Bay. These islands are part of an interconnected barrier-inlet system that includes Pass-a-Grille (PAG) and Bunces Pass. Shell Key is a relatively new island about 40-years of age that formed in between the two inlets of Bunces Pass and PAG. Mullet Key is an island to the south of Shell Key situated between Bunces Pass and the main Tampa Bay channel that has demonstrated large scale upward shoaling events. Using numerical modeling, the wave and tidal conditions at the …

Storm Induced Beach Profile Changes Along The Coast Of Treasure Island, West-Central Florida, U.S.A., Zhaoxu Zhu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Storms play a significant role in beach morphodynamics. Storm-induced beach-profile changes and their longshore variations are investigated in this study. The impacts of four summer tropical storms and two series of winter storms over the last 10 years along the coast of Treasure Island were documented. Tropical storms Alberto in 2006, Fay in 2008, Debby in 2012, Hermine in 2016 and winter storms in winter seasons of 2014 and 2015 are discussed in this study. In general, the Treasure Island beach experienced more erosion generated by tropical storms with greater intensity, but shorter duration, as compared to winter storms due …

Multiple Scales Of Beach Morphodynamic Processes: Measurements And Modelling, Jun Cheng

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Multiple scales of beach morphodynamic processes ranging from those of wave-breaking induced turbulence, individual wave, storm, seasonal, to inter-annual are examined in this dissertation based on both laboratory and field data. These processes were simulated using process-based numerical models and data-driven models.

At a microscale, separating turbulence from orbital motion under breaking waves in the surf zone is essential to understanding wave-energy dissipation. Velocity data under monochromatic and random waves in the large-scale sediment transport facility (LSTF) were analyzed. Moving averaging provides a simple method for extracting turbulence from velocity measurements under random breaking waves collected at a reasonably high …

Evolution And Equilibration Of Artificial Morphologic Perturbations In The Form Of Nearshore Berm Nourishments Along The Florida Gulf Coast, Katherine Emily Brutsché

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Inlets and channels are dredged often to maintain navigation safety. It is beneficial to reintroduce the dredged material back into the littoral system, in the form of beach or nearshore nourishments. Nourishment in the nearshore is becoming an increasingly utilized method, particularly for dredged material that contains more fine sediment than the native beach. This research examines the morphologic evolution of two different nearshore nourishments. A nearshore berm was constructed at Fort Myers Beach, Florida using mixed-sized sediment dredged from a nearby channel. The nearshore berm was placed in water depths between 1.2 and 2.4 m with the berm crest …

Distinguishing Processes That Induce Temporal Beach Profile Changes Using Principal Component Analysis: A Case Study At Long Key, West-Central Florida, Denise Marie Davis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The heavily developed Long Key is located in Pinellas County in west-central Florida. The structured Blind Pass at the north end of the barrier island interrupts the southward longshore sediment transport, resulting in severe and chronic beach erosion along the northern portion of the island. Frequent beach nourishments were conducted to mitigate the erosion. In this study, the performance of the most recent beach nourishment in 2010 is quantified through time-series beach profile surveys. Over the 34-month period, the nourished northern portion of the island, Upham Beach, lost up to 330 m3/m of sand, with a landward shoreline retreat of …

First Year Sedimentological Characteristics And Morphological Evolution Of An Artificial Berm At Fort Myers Beach, Florida, Katherine Brutsche

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Dredging is often conducted to maintain authorized depths in coastal navigation channels. Placement of dredged sediment in the form of nearshore berms is becoming an increasingly popular option for disposal. Compared to direct beach placement, nearshore berms have fewer environmental impacts such as shore birds and turtle nesting, and have more lenient sediment compatibility restrictions. Understanding the potential morphological and sedimentological evolution is crucial to the design of a nearshore berm. Furthermore, the artificial perturbation generated by the berm installation provides a unique opportunity to understand the equilibrium process of coastal morphodynamics.

Matanzas Pass and Bowditch Point, located on the …