The Impact of 2004 Hurricane Season on Beach Erosion in Volusia County, Florida

The Impact of 2004 Hurricane Season on Beach Erosion in

Volusia County, Florida

Valentina DavidBethune-Cookman CollegeDaytona Beach, FL 32114

NASA Summer Faculty Research OpportunitiesJune 6 – August 12, 2005

DeNeice GuestScience Systems And Applications, Inc.

Significance of Beach

• Revenue source• Tourist attraction• Economic growth• Coastal habitat• Exotic vegetation• Turtle nesting

Tourism in Volusia county, Revenue

• 9.5 million tourists• Spent $3.7 billion ($435/person)• Tourist Tax is $4,536,520• Convention tax is $6,908,644• Economic impact of events is $612 million• Events are Speed week, bike week, Spring

break, Independence day.

• http://floridabusiness.org/impact.htm

Outline

• 2004 hurricane season

• Study area description

• Methodology

• Change detection analysis

• Quantification of beach loss

• Conclusion

2004 Hurricane Season

• 16 Storms

• 8 Hurricanes

• 4 Hitting Florida

• 3 Cross over Volusia County– Charley– Frances– Jeanne

• $42 million dollars in damages

Hurricane Charley August 9-14, 2004

Hurricane FrancisAugust 25-September 10, 2004

Hurricane JeanneSeptember 13-27, 2004

Methodology

• Acquire Landsat TM 30m data, 1999 and 2004• Erdas Imagine 8.7• Define study area using county vector map• Subset imagery• DOQQ for Volusia County 2000, 2004• Unsupervised classification• Break out mixed clusters• Supervised classification• Majority filter• Final recode for classification map• Accuracy Assessment• Change detection

Study Area

Study Area

Erosion Examples

Erosion Examples

Erosion Examples

Target Class for evaluation

Beach, from back shore to foreshore

Accuracy Assessment

50 Random Points 1999 2004

Overall Classification Accuracy (6 classes)

94% 90.24%

Overall Kappa Statistics 0.9151 0.8719

Change Detection

Ponce Inlet, New Smyrna

Change Detection

Area in Sq. miles 1999 - 2004

Decreased 2.87

Increased 1.04

Net loss 1.83

Conclusion

• Landsat TM data was successful in identifying beach erosion in Volusia County, Florida

• Net loss of beach was 1.83 mi2

• Cost to the county, in beach replenishment was $6 – 8 millions for 800,000yd3 in 6 miles of beach

• This information can be used by Volusia County Managers in a Decision Support System to determine the most effective area for beach replenishment

• In future Remote Sensing technique may be useful for a quick beach erosion assessment

Future Plans

• Ground truthing• Meet with Volusia

County managers to discuss the results

• Acquire Landsat image for 2005 for continuation of beach erosion study

• Involve students from Bethune-Cookman College in the studies

• Completed• Collaboration is

continued• Not yet, need grant

or financial support

• One Physics major student is doing senior research project.