CIRP March 2010 eNewsletter
Issue 21, March 2010
In this Newsletter:
CIRP Technology Transfer Workshop, New Orleans District
The 12th Annual CIRP Technology Transfer Workshop will be held in conjunction with the USACE Coastal Working Group Meeting at the USACE New Orleans District. The workshop will present recent advances in decision-support for Coastal Inlets and Navigation Channels using the Coastal Modeling System (CMS) and Channel Portfolio Tool (CPT). The workshop will also include a Beginner’s Day covering basic material on the Surface-water Modeling System (SMS) and the CMS. Workshop details including registration and accommodation information can be found on the CIRP website (http://cirp.usace.army.mil/).
POC: Mitchell Brown, Mitchell.E.Brown@usace.army.mil
POC: Alex Sanchez, Alejandro.Sanchez@usace.army.mil
POC: Ned Mitchell, Kenneth.N.Mitchell@usace.army.mil
Reminder: Coastal Sediments 2011 Conference Abstracts Due 1 April 2010
Coastal Sediments 2011 will be convened May 2-6, 2011 in beautiful Miami, FL, at the Miami Regency Hyatt. Short courses will be held on Monday, May 2, followed by 3 days of the technical specialty conference. Several post-conference tours will be offered on Friday, May 6. Abstracts will be accepted through 1 April, 2010. Topics of interest include those related to the conference theme, "Bringing Together Theory and Practice," and other topics listed on the website. An abstract template, complete list of topics, and other information is available at http://coastalsediments.cas.usf.edu/index.html. We urge you to submit abstracts on case studies and other work to this high-level technical specialty conference for coastal engineers, geologists, and shallow-water oceanographers. The conference is competitive, so showing example results in your abstract will likely help toward selection.
POC: Julie Rosati, Julie.D.Rosati@usace.army.mil
CIRP-RSM-MCNP Collaboration on Nearshore Berms
The CIRP is teaming with the Regional Sediment Management (RSM) and Monitoring Completed Navigation Projects (MCNP) Programs, as well as with the Jacksonville, Mobile, and San Francisco Districts to monitor and/or model nearshore berm performance and develop guidance for their placement. This R&D is in response to a Statement of Need submitted to the Navigation Gateway that guidance is lacking for design of berms, possibly of mixed grain sizes, placed in the nearshore to provide a source of littoral sediment to the adjacent beaches while minimizing transport into the adjacent navigation channel. Nearshore berms may offer an economical disposal method, but capability to predict performance is presently limited. For many inlets, sediment dredged from navigation channels includes a mix of fines (clay and silt) and sand, and it is unsuitable for direct placement on adjacent beaches. Berms may provide a way to feed sand to beaches while winnowing fines to the offshore. Berms adjacent to navigation channels at Galveston, TX; East Pass, Destin, FL; Fort Myers Inlet, FL; and San Francisco Bay, CA are being studied through field data collection and/or numerical modeling to understand how sediment is mobilized and transported. If you have experience with berms or an ongoing nearshore placement of dredged sediment, please let us know about your projects.
POC: Julie Rosati, Julie.D.Rosati@usace.army.mil
POC: Nick Kraus, Nicholas.C.Kraus@usace.army.mil
Draft CHETN - Flowlane Disposal
Flowlane disposal is placement of dredged sediment in a natural inlet thalweg having a strong current such that the material is transported out of the area. Flowlane disposal is beneficial in returning sediment that was trapped in a harbor or navigation channel to the littoral system and, therefore, can be part of a regional sediment management plan. This CHETN describes a collaborative strategy with a Federal navigation project sponsor at Willapa Bay, WA, for conducting operation and maintenance dredging and disposal activities including flowlane disposal. A collaborative strategy increases opportunities for securing funding to conduct maintenance dredging and promotes responsiveness to local sponsor needs and capabilities. Dredge-ready or shovel-ready maintenance dredging plans compete well and may possibly be more competitive for future Federal funding presently unavailable through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) alone for low-use navigation projects.
POC: (Seattle District)Hiram Arden, Hiram.T.Arden@usace.army.mil POC: (ERDC) Nick Kraus, Nicholas.C.Kraus@usace.army.mil
3-D Sediment Transport Modeling and Application for Ocean Beach, CA.
The CIRP and the San Francisco District are presently conducting a 3-D hydrodynamic and sediment transport study with the Coastal Modeling System (CMS) to evaluate erosion at Ocean Beach, CA, under the auspices of the Regional Sediment Management (RSM) Program. Ocean Beach is located on the coast of San Francisco to the south of the Golden Gate in the shadow of the San Francisco ebb tidal delta. The flow field is highly three-dimensional there, characterized by large waves, strong tidal current, up welling and down welling, and engineering activities including maintenance of the navigation channel through the delta. The study will integrate a wide range of field data collection, including historic bathymetry surveys of the ebb delta evolution, to simulate the hydrodynamics and sediment transport with emphasis on how these processes relate to erosion at Ocean Beach. The result from the study can help guide future navigation O&M and related dredging activities, beneficial use of dredged material for nearshore and onshore displacement, beach protection, sand dune restoration, as well as decision making for RSM, enhance cross-mission benefit, and reduce project life-cycle costs.
POC: (ERDC)Lihwa Lin, Lihwa.Lin@usace.army.mil POC: (San Francisco District) Frank Wu, Frank.Wu@usace.army.mil
World of Coastal Modeling System (CMS) Applications
We are compiling a list of sites where the CMS has been appliced and would like to add your applications to our listing. So far we have 12 Pacific, 4 Great Lakes, 25 Gulf, 23 Atlantic, and 7 international applications. Please let us know of your new CMS projects. Thanks!
POC: Mitchell Brown, Mitchell.E.Brown@usace.army.mil
Breach -- and coastal destruction in new inlet
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmBhM2CSB9Q.
The Ria Formasa lagoon and barrier island chain is located along the coast of Portugal -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ria_Formosa. The area has been well studied because of the landward migration of the barrier islands, choking the lagoon, and its breach and overwash over relatively low barrier islands. The video shows a recent breach in a barrier there.
POC: Nick Kraus, Nicholas.C.Kraus@usace.army.mil
Engineer Research & Development Center
3909 Halls Ferry Road, Coastal & Hydraulics Laboratory
Vicksburg, MS 39180
251-635-9519