Coastal and estuarine habitats in the Northeast are being significantly impacted by a rapid rate of population growth and an ever-accelerating change in land use composition.
Increased population growth in coastal areas can result in pollution, habitat loss and degradation, overfishing, invasive species, and increased threats due to coastal hazards. Understanding the linkages between land use strategies and their effects on coastal-marine ecosystems is critical to the development of sound land use policies that minimize impacts from population growth and maintain the social, economic, and ecological values of our coasts.
Location:
Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR), TX
UNIBEST (UNIform Beach Sediment Transport) is a software package which contains tools for the computation of sediment transport. The package consists of three models:
UNIBEST-CL+ can be used to compute sediment transport and coastline changes along uniform sandy coasts as a result of natural forces or human interference.
UNIBEST-DE can be used to compute dune erosion during storm events.
UNIBEST-TC can be used to compute cross-shore profile changes during normal conditions (e.g.