104 FISHER, J. J. 1980b. "Shoreline Erosion, Rhode Island and North 

 Carolina Coasts - Test of Bruun Rule," Proceeding of the Per Bruun Symposium . 

 Newport, Rhode Island, International Geographical Union Commission on the 

 Coastal Environment, Bureau for Facility Research, Western Washington 

 University, Bellingham, Washington, pp 32-54. 



Analysis of Rhode Island shoreline retreat, measured on aerial photo- 

 graphs from 1939 to 1975 together with sea-level rise rates allows a test of 

 the Bruun Rule. This rule suggests that as sea- level rises, sediment eroded 

 from the shore is deposited offshore equal to this sea-level rise. Submer- 

 gence by a sea- level rise of 0.3 cm/year accounts for only 15% of the average 

 shoreline retreat of 0.2 m/year. Overwash accounts for 26%, while inlet 

 deposition accounts for 35% of this retreat. The remaining 24% of the eroded 

 sediment is deposited offshore between the breaker zone and wave base limit. 

 A similar sedimentation situation exists along the higher energy North 

 Carolina coast with erosion averaging 2.0 m/year. These are the first studies 

 of the Bruun Rule on barrier island coastlines. (Author). 



105 FLICK, R. E., and CAYAN, D. R. 1984. "Extreme Sea-Levels on the Coast 

 of California," Proceedings of the 19th Coastal Engineering Conference . 

 American Society of Civil Engineers, Houston Texas, pp 886-898. 



During the winter of 1982-1983, a combination of high tides, higher than 

 normal sea- level and storm- induced waves were devastating to the coast of 

 California. Damage estimates for public and private property destruction in 

 the coastal counties of California total over $100,000,000. Much higher than 

 average sea- levels played a very important contributory role in the flooding 

 damage. This paper describes and examines the oceanographic and 

 meteorological conditions prevailing during winter 1982-1983, and attempts to 

 put them into perspective using historical information at San Diego. Emphasis 

 is placed on the processes and forces that contribute to extreme sea-levels in 

 the hope that better understanding of these and more complete information on 

 historical extremes will help the engineer in design and in assessment of 

 risk. 



The unusually high sea- levels were due to a combination of higher than 

 normal mixed layer temperature associated with a strong, 2-year El Nino, storm 

 surge due to low atmospheric pressure and persistent onshore winds, and cumu- 

 lative effect of steady, "global" rise in relative sea- level. Higher than 

 average high tides coincided to an unusual extent with the peak sea- levels 

 reached during the numerous storms between November 1982 and March 1983. 

 Important cyclical variations occur in California's tide regime and the 

 consequences of these on extreme tides have not been considered previously. 

 (Authors) . 



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