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A unifying framework for shoreline migration: 2. Application to wave-dominated coasts

Publication ,  Journal Article
Wolinsky, MA; Brad Murray, A
Published in: Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface
March 1, 2009

The Bruun rule, widely used to predict transgression due to sea level rise on decade to century timescales based on a fixed nearshore profile, neglects the influence of inland topography and substrate lithology, leading to physically unreasonable predictions on longer timescales. We use a new approach, the shoreline Exner equation, to model shoreline transgression on wave-dominated coasts over timescales of decades to millennia. Our results show that interactions between nearshore processes and inland topography, neglected by Bruun-style models, drive morphologic evolution which modulates shoreline retreat. Analytical solutions suggest that while short-term shoreline retreat will sometimes follow the Bruun rule, long-term transgression will always follow the slope of the inland topography. Moreover, our results show that the slope of the inland landscape, relative to the nearshore slope, exerts a first-order control on coastal morphology, such that steep coasts tend to form cliff-backed beaches while gentle coasts tend to form barrier island-lagoon systems. However compositional variations between the inland landscape and nearshore system can alter this pattern. Copyright 2009 by the American Geophysical Union.

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Published In

Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface

DOI

EISSN

2169-9011

Publication Date

March 1, 2009

Volume

114

Issue

1

Related Subject Headings

  • 41 Environmental sciences
  • 37 Earth sciences
  • 04 Earth Sciences
 

Citation

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Wolinsky, M. A., & Brad Murray, A. (2009). A unifying framework for shoreline migration: 2. Application to wave-dominated coasts. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 114(1). https://doi.org/10.1029/2007JF000856
Wolinsky, M. A., and A. Brad Murray. “A unifying framework for shoreline migration: 2. Application to wave-dominated coasts.” Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface 114, no. 1 (March 1, 2009). https://doi.org/10.1029/2007JF000856.
Wolinsky MA, Brad Murray A. A unifying framework for shoreline migration: 2. Application to wave-dominated coasts. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface. 2009 Mar 1;114(1).
Wolinsky, M. A., and A. Brad Murray. “A unifying framework for shoreline migration: 2. Application to wave-dominated coasts.” Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, vol. 114, no. 1, Mar. 2009. Scopus, doi:10.1029/2007JF000856.
Wolinsky MA, Brad Murray A. A unifying framework for shoreline migration: 2. Application to wave-dominated coasts. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface. 2009 Mar 1;114(1).

Published In

Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface

DOI

EISSN

2169-9011

Publication Date

March 1, 2009

Volume

114

Issue

1

Related Subject Headings

  • 41 Environmental sciences
  • 37 Earth sciences
  • 04 Earth Sciences