CAPE HENRY, VIRGINIA

Cape Henry is a local site for instruction and research investigation landscape changes during Holocene sea level rise.  Using fine-scale digital elevation models (DEMs), dune ridges and swales of this prograding transgressive cuspate foreland have been analyzed to reconstruct the rate and morphodynamic changes along the coast of Virginia Beach. This investigation incorporates satellite imagery, aerial photogrammetry, LIDAR, digital terrain analysis, and geostatistical and geomorphometric measurement techniques. The methodology and results yield insights into how future sea level rise will affect coastal landforms and communities. 

Schematic of shoreline and Cape Henry spit complex morphodynamics.

Visualization of Cape Henry dune ridges and swales using DEMs, vector shorelines, and digital orthophotography. View is looking NW from First Landing State Park entrance on Pacific Avenue across Broad Bay toward Chicks Beach, Chesapeake Bay. 

COASTAL REMOTE SENSING AND HYDRO-HYPSOMETRY

The Eastern Shore of Virginia provides a superb local laboratory for research on remote sensing for bathymetric mapping and field work for coastal bay analysis. Both field techniques and remote sensing are being used to map subaqueous benthiscapes for analysis of coastal bay hydro-hypsometry.  GIS is used to quantify the area-depth relationships for environmental analysis at different sea level stands, as well as provide data for assessing the flushing and other characteristics of coastal bays. This work is important to improve our understanding of these bays, and the methods developed for analysis have shown to be rapid, accurate, and cost-effective.

Depth classification of AVIRIS hyperspectral imagery for Fisherman Island/Magothy Bay (left) and diagram for field collection method of hydrographic mapping using DGPS and digital echosounder (right.)

Great Machipongo River channel in Hog Bay, Eastern Shore of Virginia. Landsat TM image (432 RGB) draped onto bathymetry.