Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Massive Upland To Wetland Conversion Compensated For Historical Marsh Loss In Chesapeake Bay, Usa, Nathalie W. Schieder, David C. Walters, Matthew L. Kirwan

VIMS Articles

Sea level rise leads to coastal transgression, and the survival of ecosystems depends on their ability to migrate inland faster than they erode and submerge. We compared marsh extent between nineteenth-century maps and modern aerial photographs across the Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in North America, and found that Chesapeake marshes have maintained their spatial extent despite relative sea level rise rates that are among the fastest in the world. In the mapped region (i.e., 25% of modern Chesapeake Bay marshland),94 km2of marsh was lost primarily to shoreline erosion,whereas 101 km2of marsh was created by upland drowning.Simple projections over the …

Shoreline Evolution: City Of Chesapeake, Virginia Elizabeth River Shorelines Data Summary Report, Donna A. Milligan, Christine Wilcox, C. Scott Hardaway Jr.

Reports

City of Chesapeake is situated between the Cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth along several branches of the Elizabeth River (Figure 1). Because the City's shoreline is continually changing, determining where the shoreline was in the past, how far and how fast it is moving, and what factors drive shoreline change will help define where the shoreline will be going in the future. These rates and patterns of shore change along Chesapeake Bay’s estuarine shores will differ through time as winds, waves, tides and currents shape and modify coastlines by eroding, transporting and depositing sediments.

The purpose of this report is …

Sea Level Driven Marsh Expansion In A Coupled Model Of Marsh Erosion And Migration, Matthew L. Kirwan, Dc Walters, W. G. Reay, Ja Carr

VIMS Articles

Coastal wetlands are among the most valuable ecosystems on Earth, where ecosystem services such as flood protection depend nonlinearly on wetland size and are threatened by sea level rise and coastal development. Here we propose a simple model of marsh migration into adjacent uplands and couple it with existing models of seaward edge erosion and vertical soil accretion to explore how ecosystem connectivity influences marsh size and response to sea level rise. We find that marsh loss is nearly inevitable where topographic and anthropogenic barriers limit migration. Where unconstrained by barriers, however, rates of marsh migration are much more sensitive …

Chesapeake Bay Land Subsidence And Sea Level Change : An Evaluation Of Past And Present Trends And Future Outlook, John D. Boon, John M. Brubaker, David R. Forrest

Reports

Ten Chesapeake Bay water level stations presently have a combined total of 647 years of water level measurements with record lengths varying between 35 years (1975-2009) at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, VA, and 107 years (1903-2009) at Baltimore, MD. All ten stations, with the exception of Gloucester Point, VA, are active stations in the National Water Level Observation Network of water level stations maintained by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services.

New technologies such as sea surface range measurements from earth-orbiting satellites now provide a global assessment of absolute sea level …

Surface Observations, Ground Truth And Data : Nasa-Usgs Mission 144 : Chesapeake Bay Region, Sept. 22-30, 1970, Maynard M. Nichols

Reports

Surface observations of coastal waters and "ground. truth" data were obtained to aid interpretation and analyses of overflight photography and imagery. Among the broad objectives of the mission was to investigate the potential of high-altitude, multispectral photography as a tool for the improved planning necessary to cope with multidisciplinary problems within the coastal zone, specifically with regard to:

1. The inventory and evaluation of the central Atlantic coastal area natural resources;

2. The assessment of human and natural degradation of these resources;

3. The feasibility of monitoring resource allocation and management, including land use categories and the impact of urbanization …