Sabine Pass to San Luis Pass,
Texas, Shoreline Erosion
Feasibility Study
Description
The US Army Engineer District, Galveston, has requested the technical assistance of the
U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center's Coastal and Hydraulics
Laboratory (CHL) in their major shoreline erosion study along the northeast Texas Gulf
coast. This ongoing study will identify those reaches where erosion control is justifiable on
economic and/or environmental grounds, and will develop effective solutions at minimum
costs. Within the Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory, the majority of this assistance is
being supplied by team members from the Coastal Processes Branch (CPB).
Highway 87, Jefferson County TX, abandoned due to coastal erosion.
CPB is applying cutting-edge technologies and in-depth analysis to assist in the design
Issue
effort. For example, all standard numerical models incorrectly predicted the direction of
net sediment transport along Galveston Island. By using high-speed computers to model
the effects of local winds, CPB developed modifications to the numerical model GENESIS
that produced a net transport direction in agreement with observations.
To date, CPB has produced a 10-year (1990-1999) WIS hourly hindcast of wave
Products
conditions along the Texas coast, along with storm wave, hindcasts for hurricanes events
dating back to 1886. Using these and other data inputs, CPB has set up and calibrated
GENESIS and SBEACH models to test design alternatives. In the future, CPB will apply
these and other models along with their expertise to supply input to economics models and
to help formulate and test alternative erosion control designs.
The numerical models being applied in this study include the latest versions of WIS (Wave
Supporting Technology
Information Study), ADCIRC (ADvanced CIRCulation model), STWAVE (STeady-state
spectral WAVE model), GENESIS (GENEralized model for SImulating Shoreline change),
SBEACH (Storm-induced BEAch CHange model) and EST (Empirical Simulation
Technique).
U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center
18 April 2005
Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory (Project/Mission Support)
www.erdc.usace.army.mil
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