IMPACT OF HURRICANE SANDY ON THE SALT MARSHES OF CHINCOTEAGUE BAY, VIRGINIA, AND BARNEGAT BAY, NEW JERSEY

Liverpool P-I Nicoletta Leonardi; 5 years, United States Geological Survey (USGS) funded project.

Under a climate change scenario, we may face an increase in frequency and magnitude of extreme events.  

Coastal wetlands are ecosystem based flood defences, provide important ecosystem services, and help protecting coastal communities from hurricanes and violent storms. However, coastal wetlands are currently eroding at an alarming rate and we risk losing all their valuable ecosystem services. In collaboration with the USGS, we will use hydrodynamic and sediment transport models and develop new numerical tools within the COAWAST modelling frame to determine the morphological evolution of coastal wetlands under future climate change scenarios, and investigate wetland stability as a function of sediment budgets.