Monitoring storm-induced dramatic beach morphology changes and long-term beach evolution provides crucial data for coastal management. Beach-profile measurement using total station has been conducted along the coast of west-central Florida over the last decade. This paper reviews several case studies of beach morphology changes based on total-station survey along this coast. The advantage of flexible and low-cost total-station surveys is discussed in comparison to LIDAR (light detection and ranging) method. In an attempt to introduce total-station survey from a practical prospective, measurement of cross-shore beach profile in various scenarios are discussed, including: (1) establishing a beach profile line with known instrument and benchmark locations; (2) surveying multiple beach profiles with one instrument setup; (3) implementation of coordinate rotation to convert local system to real-earth system. Total-station survey is a highly effective and accurate method in documenting beach profile changes along low-energy coasts.

Hyperspectral remote sensing imagery contains much more information in the spectral domain than does multispectral imagery. The consecutive and abundant spectral signals provide a great potential for classification and anomaly detection. In this study, two real hyperspectral data sets were used for anomaly detection. One data set was an Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) data covering the post-attack World Trade Center (WTC) and anomalies are fire spots. The other data set called SpecTIR contained fabric panels as anomalies compared to their background. Existing anomaly detection algorithms including the Reed–Xiaoli detector (RXD), the blocked adaptive computation efficient outlier nominator (BACON), the random selection based anomaly detector (RSAD), the weighted-RXD (W-RXD), and the probabilistic anomaly detector (PAD) are reviewed here. The RXD generally sets strict assumptions to the background, which cannot be met in many scenarios, while BACON, RSAD, and W-RXD employ strategies to optimize the estimation of background information. The PAD firstly estimates both background information and anomaly information and then uses the information to conduct anomaly detection. Here, the BACON, RSAD, W-RXD, and PAD outperformed the RXD in terms of detection accuracy, and W-RXD and PAD required less time than BACON and RSAD.

Cheng, J. and Wang, P., 2022. Factors controlling storm-induced morphology changes at an erosional hot spot on a nourished beach, Sand Key barrier island, west-central Florida. Journal of Coastal Research, 38(4), 750–765. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Beach nourishment has become the dominant sandy shore protection method over the past 40 years. The performance of nourished beaches and therefore the design of renourishment projects are significantly controlled by the presence of erosional hot spots and storm impacts. Based on 5.5-year bimonthly beach profile surveys, along a nourished beach spanning an erosional hot spot, this study examines the hydrodynamic conditions of extratropical (winter) and tropical (summer) storms that cause significant morphology changes. The sand volume loss above the short-term closure depth averaged along the 1.8-km stretch erosional hot spot was 178 m3/m over the 5.5 years after the nourishment. A large portion of this volume loss was caused by several extratropical storms and Hurricane Irma in 2017, when the high, northerly approaching waves were associated with a depressed water level. The northerly approaching waves induced a large longshore sediment transport gradient along the generally north-south trending coast due to wave refraction over a nearby ebb tidal delta. The energetic Hurricane Irma induced a large negative surge and also transported sediment seaward beyond the short-term closure depth. On the other hand, during the passages of typical tropical storms, the southerly approaching waves superimposed on elevated water levels caused substantial beach volume loss above the mean sea level. The eroded sediment deposited on the nearshore sandbar, resulting in conserved sand volume above the short-term closure depth. Understanding the different beach response to extratropical and tropical storms would benefit beach management, especially under the circumstance of increasing storm activities due to climate change.

The displacement of a large amount of water in a moderate-sized estuary by a fast-moving mega-ship can generate tsunami-like waves. Such waves, generated by cruise ships, were observed in Tampa Bay, Florida, USA. Two distinct, long tsunami-like waves were measured, which were associated with the passage of a large cruise ship. The first wave had a period of 5.4 min and a height of 0.40 m near the shoreline. The second wave had a period of 2.5 min and was 0.23 m high. The peak velocity of the onshore flow during the second wave reached 0.65 m/s. The shorter, second wave propagated considerably faster than the first wave in the breaking zone. The measured wave celerity was less than 50% of the calculated values, using the shallow water approximation of the dispersion equation, suggesting that nonlinear effects play an important role. A fundamental similarity among the generation of tsunamis, as induced by mega-ships, landslides or earthquakes, is a process that causes a vertical velocity at the sea surface, where a freely propagating wave is produced. This mega-ship-generated tsunami provides a prototype field laboratory for systematically studying tsunami dynamics, particularly the strong turbulent flows associated with the breaking of a tsunami wave in the nearshore, and tsunami–land interactions. It also provides a realistic demonstration for public education, which is essential for the preparation and management of this unpreventable hazard.