Bureau of Economic Geology (BEG) Shoreline Change Update

Summary

BEG will update Texas Gulf of Mexico shoreline change rates and determine beach and dune volume and elevation status by completing the following tasks:  (1) planning and acquiring topographic and bathymetric lidar data along the entire Texas Gulf of Mexico shoreline; (2) processing lidar data creating point clouds and digital elevation models of the land surface in the beach and dune system and possibly the sea bottom in shallow waters seaward of the shoreline; (3) analyzing the lidar data to extract a current shoreline position and determine beach and dune volume and elevation statistics; (4) determining short- and long-term shoreline change trends through comparison with past shoreline positions; and (5) quantifying beach and dune volumetric trends through comparison with morphological data obtained from airborne lidar surveys acquired in 2000, 2010, 2011, and 2012.