New paper about Mapping the Shoreface of Coastal Sediment Compartments

A new paper is just published in the Journal of Estuaries and Coasts. The paper is entitled: "Mapping the Shoreface of Coastal Sediment Compartments to Improve Shoreline Change Forecasts in New South Wales, Australia".

Kinsela et al., 2020

The potential response of shoreface depositional environments to sea level rise over the present century and beyond remains poorly understood. The shoreface is shaped by wave action across a sedimentary seabed and may aggrade or deflate depending on the balance between time-averaged wave energy and the availability and character of sediment, within the context of the inherited geological control.

They present high-resolution mapping of the shoreface-inner shelf in southeastern Australia from airborne lidar and vessel-based multibeam echosounder surveys, which reveals a more complex seabed than was previously known. The mapping data are used to interpret the extent, depositional character and morphodynamic state of the shoreface, by comparing the observed geomorphology to theoretical predictions from wave-driven sediment transport theory. The benefits of high-resolution seabed mapping for improving shoreline change predictions in practice are explored by comparing idealised shoreline change modelling based on our understanding of shoreface geomorphology and morphodynamics before and after the mapping exercise.

This study is leaded by M. A. Kinsela (from the University of Sydney), and the DU Marine Mapping Group members Rafael C. Carvalho contributed to the publication.

Congrats Rafael!

To read the full publication, click here.