Geomorphologic Recovery of North Captiva Island from the Landfall of Hurricane Charley in 2004

Abstract

Hurricane Charley made landfall on the Gulf Coast of Florida on 13 August 2004 as a category 4 hurricane, devastating North Captiva Island. The hurricane caused a breach to occur to the southern end of the island, which naturally healed itself over the course of three years. By 2008, the cut was completely repaired geomorphologically. LiDAR data analysis shows the northern half of the island has been subjected to persistent erosion from 1998–2018, while the southern half experienced accretion since 2004, including the complete closure of the “Charley cut”. The maximum volume of sediment erosion in the northern sector of the island (R71–R73) from 2004–2018 was −85,710.1 m3, which was the source of southern accretion. The breached area of the island (R78b–R79a) obtained 500,163.9 m3 of sediments from 2004–2018 to heal the cut made by Hurricane Charley. Along with LiDAR data analysis, Google Earth Pro historical imageries and SANDS volumetric analysis confirmed the longshore transport of sediments from the northern to the southern end of the island. Winter storms are mainly responsible for this southerly longshore transport and are hypothesized to be the main factor driving the coastal dynamics that restored the breach and helps in widening the southern end of North Captiva Island.

Using dune restoration on an urban beach as a coastal resilience approach

“…Coastal dune restoration projects span the globe, including Brazil (Manes et al, 2023), Pacific Island nations (Kiddle et al, 2021), Australia (Morris et al, 2020), and New Zealand (Hesp and Hilton, 2013) in the southern hemisphere; and Ireland (Lawlor and Jackson, 2022), Netherlands (Konlechner et al, 2014), Canada (Walker et al, 2013), and the United States in the northern hemisphere. Examples of dune restoration are found on all coasts of the United States including the Gulf of Mexico (Gittman et al, 2014;Houser et al, 2015;Kelly and Jose, 2021); New York, New Jersey, Virginia, and the Chesapeake Bay (Nordstrom et al, 2000;Nordstrom et al, 2011;Psuty and Silveira, 2013); Pacific Northwest (Zarnetske et al, 2015), and several in northern California (Hilgendorf et al, 2022;Walker et al, 2022). However, examples from southern California are extremely limited.…”