SHORELINE MOVEMENTS 



Report 1 



CAPE HENRY, VIRGINIA, TO CAPE HATTERAS, NORTH CAROLINA, 1849-1980 

 PART I: INTRODUCTION 



1. This report describes results of a cooperative National Oceanic and 

 Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) , National Ocean Service (NOS) , and U. S. 

 Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station, Coastal Engineering Research 

 Center (CERC), study of shoreline changes. The study area comprises the ocean 

 coast south from Cape Henry, Virginia, to west of Cape Hatteras, North Caro- 

 lina, and the sound-side coast of the barrier islands between each of the 

 Capes (Figure 1). Changes in shoreline position from 1852 to 1980 are treated 

 using survey data from NOS and its predecessor, the U. S. Coast and Geodetic 

 Survey (C&GS). (NOAA/NOS-CERC shoreline movement maps, 1852-1980, are in- 

 cluded as a separate enclosure to this report.) 



2. Shoreline changes of a quantifiable nature are presented covering 

 what is probably the longest period of historic survey record of the area 

 available. Although maps exist dating back to 1585 (dimming 1966), prior to 

 1849 the position of the shoreline was not located with sufficient accuracy to 

 allow a comparison of that feature on different maps. The early maps, however, 

 do provide a valuable reference for locating inlets that were open during the 

 past 400 years. Langf elder et al. (1970), in a study of coastal erosion in 

 North Carolina, used aerial photographs dating from 1945, for which measure- 

 ments were made at approximately 300-m intervals along the beach. Dolan 



et al. (1979) also using aerial photographs but measuring at 100-m intervals, 

 established erosion rates in Virginia, North Carolina, and elsewhere, based 

 upon data spanning 30 years or more for over half the area and over 15 years 

 for the whole area. Dolan et al. (1979, p 603) note their total measurement 

 error as potentially as much as ±25 m for rate-of-change calculations. The 

 frequency of the aerial survey was much greater than that of shoreline surveys 

 used in this study, but the total aerial study duration was less than 25 per- 

 cent that of this study. This longer data span (130 years) allows a more 

 extended analysis of temporal variations in shoreline change rates. 



