Meteorological and oceanographic data will be obtained from off-shore NOAA buoys as well as from the National Weather Service - parameters including wave height and period, water level, wind speed and direction as well as barometric pressure will be stored as input data for model runs. Bathymetry data will be obtained from the NOAA Coastline Extractor for the Gulf of Mexico region. Local bathymetry data as well as aerial photographs will be obtained from the US Army Corps of Engineers for the shoreline. The bathymetry data will also be stored as input data from model runs.
Local wind, wave and current data will be obtained at the site with inshore and offshore instrument platforms. A minimum of one platform will be deployed in at least 20 feet of water offshore the site. Included on the platform will be one Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) for the measurement of the vertical profile of horizontal currents, one Optical Backscatter Sensor (OBS) to measure local turbidity, and one Paros-Digiquartz pressure sensor for the measurement of wave height and period. A minimum of one additional platform will be secured in the surf-zone at low tide (the platform will be immediately offshore of the surf-zone at high tide) that will contain the foregoing suite of instruments, but will include in addition, one Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter (ADV) for the measurement of turbulent velocities and one Laser In-Situ Sediment Transmissometer (LISST) for the measurement of local sediment concentration for the estimation of sediment flux in the surf zone. In addition, high-resolution beach profiles (70 meter along-shore spacing) will be obtained with an Electronic Distance Meter (EDM).
US Army Corps public-domain models STWAVE (STeady State Irregular WAVE Model) SBEACH (Storm-induced BEAch CHange Model) GENESIS (GENEralized Model for Simulating Shoreline Change) and NMLONG (Numerical Model for Simulating the LONGshore current) will be run to aid in designing the project. STWAVE will be run to estimate the local wave climate at the study site. SBEACH and GENESIS will be run to examine cross-shore and along-shore beach profile change due to storms (5 to 15 year return period). NMLONG will be run to estimate the along-shore current profile and sediment flux. Model results will be used to aid in the design of the submerged geo-textile system cross-section, spacing and length. These models will be improved and repackaged in Beach Restoration Inc.'s proprietary software package during project design and during monitoring using data collected during Post-Construction monitoring activity.