Inventory of Habitat Modifications to Tidal Inlets and Sandy Beach Habitat

The project inventoried modifications to both tidal inlet and sandy, oceanfront beach habitats along the Atlantic coast from Maine through Virginia. Three distinct time periods were assessed: before, immediately after, and three years after Hurricane Sandy to document modifications to beaches and beach habitat in response to Hurricane Sandy. The inventories and series of reports were generated using Google Earth imagery.

Phase 1 of the project is an inventory of habitat modifications to tidal inlets and sandy beach habitat prior to Hurricane Sandy, which made landfall on October 29, 2012.

Phase 2 used imagery immediately following Hurricane Sandy (i.e., November 2012, where it is available) to assess whether the number and location of tidal inlets and lengths of sandy beaches changed with the storm.

Phase 3 is an update of the habitat modifications inventories to include projects constructed and proposed within three years following Hurricane Sandy, through the end of calendar year 2015. Phase 3 includes two components of post-Sandy inventories:

1) replicating all Phase 1 work using imagery dated three years post-Sandy (late 2015 or early 2016) to capture the changes in inlets and sandy beaches following three years of recovery and restoration activities; and
2) adding a quantification of the lengths of beach in each state impacted by sand fencing and beach scraping following Hurricane Sandy using the best available information.