Date of Award
12-2025
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Program
Engineering and Applied Science - Earth & Environmental
Department
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Major Professor
Ioannis Georgiou
Second Advisor
Mark Kulp
Third Advisor
Christopher Hein
Fourth Advisor
Duncan M. FitzGerald
Fifth Advisor
Madeline Foster-Martinez
Sixth Advisor
Satish Bastola
Abstract
Coastal inlets are dynamic nodes of sediment exchange where storms and morphology interact to shape barrier-island evolution. Yet, the magnitude and persistence of storm-driven sediment fluxes across mixed-energy inlet systems remain poorly quantified. This dissertation integrates process-based modeling, long-term morphologic analyses, and sediment flux quantification to resolve storm–morphology feedback at two U.S. Atlantic inlets, Essex Inlet, Massachusetts, and Chincoteague Inlet, Virginia.
Hydrodynamic simulations of the 2018 Bomb Cyclone and 1991 Hurricane Bob at Essex Inlet reveal that storm duration and wave directionality govern the reversal of tidal asymmetry, driving flood-dominant flow and >4,000 m³ of landward sediment transport into the backbarrier. In contrast, modeling of tropical and extratropical storms at Chincoteague Inlet shows that storm events generate sediment fluxes surpassing annual transport rates but increasingly constrained by evolving inlet geometry. A three-decade morphologic analysis demonstrates that Fishing Point spit elongation and inlet widening have reduced sediment delivery by sixfold to the spit terminus towards the inlet margin in the modern configuration, transforming the system from a net importer to an exporter of sediment.
Together, these results establish that the interaction between storm forcing and morphologic adjustment dictates whether inlets act as sediment conduits or barriers. The findings provide a transferable framework linking event-scale sediment dynamics to decadal morphologic evolution, improving predictions of coastal response to accelerating sea-level rise and intensifying storm regimes.
Recommended Citation
Sakib, Md Mohiuddin, "Storm-generated Sediment Transport Pathways along Inlet-interrupted Coasts" (2025). University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations. 3321.
https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/3321
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Rights
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