A COLLECTION OF STORM EROSION FIELD DATA 



PART I : INTRODUCTION 



Background 



1. Though beaches are constantly being remolded by waves, winds, and 

 tides, the largest and most dramatic changes occur during storms. Storms not 

 only remove large quantities of sediment from the beach, but also cause 

 significant damage to residential property, commercial developments, and 

 recreational areas. Interest in storm effects date to the early history of 

 coastal engineering; however, the ability to predict storm erosion is still 

 highly empirical. Recent efforts by Hughes and Chiu (1981), Kriebel (1982, 

 1986), Kriebel and Dean (1985), Balsillie (1986), and Vellinga (1983, 1986) 

 to estimate storm changes show promise, but more research is required. 

 Prediction efforts have been hampered by a general lack of storm erosion 

 data, particularly data on large storms. Minimum data requirements to 

 quantify storm effects include field surveys collected before and immediately 

 after a particular storm along with concurrent wave and water level 

 measurements . 



Purpose and Scope 



2. The purpose of this report is to document storm erosion data 

 collected by the US Army Corps of Engineers between 1962 and 1978 and to 

 quantify the effects of 13 storm events at from two to seven east coast 

 beaches. Beach profiles along with wave and water level data are included. 

 Expectations are that this unique data set will be used to develop and 

 evaluate models for predicting changes to beaches caused by coastal storms. 



3. The Coastal Engineering Research Center (CERC) of the US Army 

 Engineer Waterways Experiment Station (WES) and its predecessor, the Beach 

 Erosion Board (BEB), have a long history of interest in storm effects. The 

 first major program, the "Storm Warning Program," resulted from Congressional 



