Wang, P.; Bishop, J.E.; Westfall, Z.J.; Novalvos Hernandez, L.; Royer, E.L., and Jackson, K., 2026. Impacts of three consecutive hurricanes in 2024 along low-lying heavily developed barrier islands, west-central Florida, U.S.A. Journal of Coastal Research, 42(3), 511–535. Charlotte (North Carolina), ISSN 0749-0208. The year 2024 was exceptional for the west-central Florida coast in terms of hurricane impacts. Three hurricanes, Debby, Helene, and Milton, impacted the coast within 65 days. Three heavily developed barrier islands were examined based on six repeated surveys of 121 beach profiles conducted before and after the passage of each hurricane. This provided a rare opportunity to quantify the impacts of consecutive hurricanes along a heavily developed coast. Beach-dune changes caused by each storm demonstrated substantial alongshore variation that was significantly controlled by prestorm conditions. The beach-dune changes caused by a subsequent storm are strongly influenced by the profile characteristics produced by the previous storm. Hurricane Helene generated the highest storm surge over the 78-year measurement period in the greater study area. Widespread flooding of the barrier-island interior was mostly from the bayside overtopping the seawall by up to 1.3 m. During Hurricane Helene, the beach and dunes were not able to sustain the prolonged (>5 h) wave attack. Some of the sand from the eroded dunes was deposited onto the beach. The storm surge also caused widespread washover distributing eroded beach and dune sand onto roads and infrastructures that were <150 m from the ocean. The few surviving dunes were protected by a wider than 50-m beach seaward of the dune field. Hurricane Milton deposited significant amounts of sand in deeper water as compared with Hurricanes Debby and Helene. The alongshore variation of the seaward limit of measurable elevation change was mainly controlled by prestorm bathymetry as opposed to alongshore variation of wave heights.

Typical of a shallow estuary, McKay Bay located at the northeastern end of Tampa Bay, Florida, USA, has been heavily altered by anthropogenic activities partially due to its proximity to the Port of Tampa. A bridge and causeway were built crossing the mouth of the bay, along with numerous dredge-and-fill projects within the bay. These common engineering activities have altered tidal circulation by concentrating flow in the deep and wide dredged channel in the middle and weakening the currents in the nearshore area leading to deteriorating environmental conditions along the low-income underserved Palmetto Beach community coast. The objective of this study is to restore the natural tidal circulation pattern by applying basin-scale nature-based solutions, using numerical modeling to evaluate various solutions. A calibrated and verified numerical model was constructed to quantify the impacts of engineering alterations on tidal circulation in this shallow estuary. Based on the numerical modeling results, the present channelized tidal circulation is significantly different from the rather spatially uniform flow pattern under natural conditions with relatively strong flow in the nearshore area. The bridge and causeway system at the entrance to the bay created a stagnant zone at the two corners. The dredging of the natural bayhead delta at the mouth of a tidal creek, which guided tidal flow along the shoreline, played a dominant role in altering bay-wide circulation. The large protruding landfill along the northern shoreline created a corner and a large shadow zone for tidal flow. By restoring the historical bayhead delta, although at a different location, the natural circulation can be restored except at the corners created by irreversible engineering activities. The McKay Bay engineering modifications are quite common. Our approach, based on a key natural feature that was removed by human alteration, can be considered a nature-based solution and have broad applications.

Coastal communities throughout the (sub)tropics face increasing threats from tropical cyclones, prompting the need to develop innovative resiliency strategies. While grey infrastructure such as retaining/seawalls have long been the default solution for protecting coastal properties from destructive storm surge flooding and wave impacts, coastal wetlands offer a potential enhancement that balances shoreline protection with ecological benefits. In this study, we evaluate the outcomes and implications of a narrow mangrove belt seaward of vertical seawalls, and the impacts that they would have in an urban, developed environment at the community/neighborhood scale. We simulated eighteen hybrid designs which tested three seawall crest heights (0, 1 m, and 2 m) and six mangrove forest widths (0 - 50 m) using a coupled high-resolution hydrodynamic-wave model of a shoreline in Tampa Bay, Florida (USA). For each design, performance was evaluated under three major storm surge events that caused extensive flood damage in recent years to the local community. Our results show that just 10 m of mangrove forest can attenuate wave heights by 64%, compared to just 22% wave height attenuation over the same distance of unvegetated shoreline. However, with regards to reduction of storm surge, forest widths up to 50 m were not sufficient to reduce storm surge levels. An elevated seawall improved flood protection when the crest height exceeded the storm surge level but posed drainage issues. Hybrid designs composed of a narrow mangrove belt in front of a seawall reduced wave energy reaching inland and impacting the grey infrastructure more effectively than an unvegetated seawall. These results highlight the practicability and potential benefits of integrating nature into urban resiliency strategies.

After rapid increases in ocean volumes during the early Holocene, sea levels rose more slowly from the mid- to late-Holocene. The flat shelf of the eastern Gulf of Mexico meant even small rises in sea level shifted the coastline inland many kilometers. The impact of this transgression on the karst environments of western Florida is not well known. Here we investigate how one Floridian location responded to changing climate from the mid- and lateHolocene. Chassahowitzha River, representing one of many west-central Florida rivers, is spring fed and discharges into the Gulf of Mexico. Sinkholes along this river have the potential to preserve complete and undisturbed sedimentary records. Three sediment cores were collected from a sinkhole complex just north of the river. All three cores contain their sedimentary record down to the limestone bedrock. Ten radiocarbon dates were used to create the core chronologies. Interpretation of paleoenvironmental changes is based on sediment grain size analysis, microphotography, loss-on-ignition organic carbon contents and identification of microfossils in the sediments. Prior to 7 ka BP, sediments are dominated by quartz sand followed by an organic-rich layer ending at 6 ka BP. We interpret the organic sediments as the onset of a freshwater wetland/marsh environment along the river. Most of the marsh sediments are deposited between 7 and 6 ka BP when the coastline was 30 kms seaward. Next, there is a 3.8 kyr gap in deposition as demonstrated by the radiocarbon chronology. This hiatus could have been caused by changes in sea level, periods of aridity, draining of the sinkhole lakes or the development of the sinkhole complex. After this interval the sedimentary record is characterized by inorganic deposits which contain an abundance of microfossils. The topmost sediments of each core were interspersed with discrete shell layers which may be indicative of extreme storm events.

Understanding tidal changes and their potential forcing mechanisms enables a better assessment of non-stationary tidal effects for projecting extreme sea levels and nuisance flooding. In this study, we investigate the seasonal and interannual changes in the M2 tidal current off the Guangdong coast using currents observed via two different types of high-frequency radar from 2019 to 2022. The results indicate significant seasonal changes in the M2 tidal current in the coastal areas of the Pearl River Estuary and Cape Maqijiao, with the largest relative deviations occurring in summer, reaching 10–20%. Observations of thermohaline profiles from 2006 to 2007 and 1978 to 1988 show that runoff in summer can reach these two areas and change the stratification of seawater, in turn affecting tidal currents. A comparative analysis of the two areas suggests that the greater the runoff, the wider the area where the M2 tidal current experiences significant seasonal variation. No significant interannual changes in the M2 tidal current were detected offshore of Guangdong during the observation period. However, an abrupt change occurred in the coastal area of Shantou in 2021, primarily caused by the distortion of the antenna patterns.

The extreme conditions associated with Hurricane Ian, a large Category 4 hurricane, led to unprecedented damage to the barrier islands of southwest Florida. This study investigates the morphologic changes and sedimentological signatures of deposits resulting from Hurricane Ian along both developed and undeveloped barrier islands through a combination of sediment cores and pre- and post-storm digital elevation models. Laterally extensive washover deposits, measured up to 74 cm thick, were formed during the intensification phase of the storm surge and were primarily controlled by the degree of development and vegetation density along barrierisland interiors. Storm deposit sedimentology was influenced by the degree of development and position relative to the dune crest, with a large inclusion of anthropogenic debris along developed barrier-island interiors. During the subsiding phase of the storm surge, short, straight channels and longer, dendritic ebb-scour channels, measuring up to 2.4 m in depth, were cut into newly formed storm deposits and antecedent washover deposits from previous storms, reflecting time-dependent bidirectional sediment transport processes during Hurricane Ian. The results of this study demonstrate how bidirectional processes throughout a single large storm event have significant implications for the preservation potential of new and existing washover deposits, presenting a potential setback for long-term barrier-island migration.

Estimating the impacts of climate change on streamflow in the Xiaoxingkai Lake Basin is vital for ensuring sustainable water resource management and transboundary cooperation across the entire Xingkai Lake Basin, a transboundary lake system shared between China and Russia. In this study, 11 Global Climate Models (GCMs) from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) under two Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSP245 and SSP585) were used to drive the Soil and Water Assessment Tool Plus (SWAT+) model. Streamflow projections were made for two future periods: the 2040s (2021–2060) and the 2080s (2061–2100). To correct for systematic biases in the GCM outputs, we applied the Delta Change method, which significantly reduced root mean square error (RMSE) in both precipitation and temperature by 3–35%, thereby improving the accuracy of SWAT+ simulations. To better capture inter-model variability and enhance the robustness of streamflow projections, we used the Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA) technique to generate a weighted ensemble, which outperformed the simple arithmetic mean by reducing uncertainty across models. Our results indicated that under SSP245, greater increases were projected in annual streamflow as well as in wet and normal-flow seasons (e.g., streamflow in normal-flow season in the 2080s increased by 13.0% under SSP245, compared to 7.0% under SSP585). However, SSP585 produced a much larger relative amplification in the dry season, with percentage changes relative to the historical baseline reaching up to +171.7% in the 2080s, although the corresponding absolute increases remained limited due to the low baseline flow. These findings quantify climate-driven hydrological changes in a cool temperate lake basin by integrating climate projections, hydrological modeling, and ensemble techniques, and highlight their implications for understanding hydrological sustainability under future climate scenarios, providing a critical scientific foundation for developing adaptive, cross-border water management strategies, and for further studies on water resource resilience in transboundary basins.

Building information extraction from remote sensing images plays an essential role in urban information management and disaster prevention and mitigation.This study establishes a fine-grained building feature set,namely,MFBFS,for high-resolution multispectral remote sensing images.MFBFS uses the domestically produced Gaofen-2 multispectral remote sensing images as data source and selects 21 districts and counties with concentrated buildings in various disaster zones in China,covering 3668 km2 as the study area.These regions include Yongjia County,Xuwen County,and Wanning City in the southeastern coastal disaster belt;Ning'an City,Kaiyuan City,Laiyuan County,Shouguang City,Xinxiang County,Lujiang County,Hengdong County,and Songbei District in the eastern disaster belt;Daning County,Enshi City,Tengchong City,and Shuicheng County in the central disaster belt;Kashgar City,Yizhou District,and Pingluo County in the northwest disaster belt;and Diebu County,Yushu City,and Milin County in the Qinghai-Tibetan disaster belt.To obtain high-quality and high-resolution remote sensing images,a series of preprocessing procedures was applied to the Gaofen-2 images.Initially,poor-quality images were removed,followed by radiometric and orthorectification corrections on multispectral and panchromatic images,respectively.Finally,the panchromatic images were fused to enhance the spatial resolution of the multispectral images,resulting in a spatial resolution of 0.8 m.Seventeen feature components were generated from four perspectives:spectral,texture,edge,and index.Spectral features include features from the blue,green,red,and near-infrared bands.Texture features consist of contrast,dissimilarity,homogeneity,correlation,angular second moment,local binary pattern,and histogram of oriented gradients.Edge features comprise first-order and multi-order edge characteristics.Index features include building,shadow,vegetation,and water indexes.MFBFS encompasses over 260000 building instances,ensuring high intra-class diversity in terms of size,shape,color,orientation,background,and structural type.These instances are classified into three structural types,namely,steel and reinforced concrete,masonry,and block stone structures,significantly reflecting the abilities of buildings to resist disasters and their usable lifespans.The fine-grained design will cause the task of extracting buildings through remote sensing to play a greater role,particularly in pre-disaster loss prediction and post-disaster loss assessment in the disaster field.Rigorous quality control processes and field inspections were conducted to ensure the high accuracy of ground truth values.This procedure involved adherence to interpretation standards and inviting data inspectors and remote sensing image experts to assess the quality of remote sensing images and corresponding ground truth values.Ultimately,191 GB of high-quality feature and label data were obtained.Each of the 17 feature components comprises 11005 512×512-sized feature maps with a spatial resolution of 0.8 m,uniformly expanded to a value range of[0,1].Initial deep learning experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of MFBFS.This feature set,available for download at,provides robust data support for fine-grained building structure extraction research and promotes the development of domestic high-resolution remote sensing data applications.

The realization of high-quality development of preschool education and the construction of a scientific and reasonable kindergarten education quality assurance system are not only inevitable measures under the development trend of "demographic dividend" to "talent dividend" under the background of "ageing and fewer children" of the current population .This paper analyzes the multidimensional complexity of the kindergarten education quality assurance system from five aspects: the main body of the education process, the standard setting of the quality of education, the way of monitoring and Evaluation, the way and method of information collection, and the way of incentive and Evaluation.

Field observations on storm induced beach changes are important to improve our effort on beach management. This study compared storm induced beach changes caused by hurricane Hermine in 2016 (4 years after a beach nourishment) and Tropical Storm Eta in 2020 (2 years after a beach renourishment) along the barrier-island coast of west-central Florida. Pre-Eta beach were 1 to 2 times wider than that of pre-Hermine. Since Hurricane Hermine and TS Eta generated a similar hydrodynamic condition for the study site, comparing beach changes induced by these two storms provides a unique opportunity to investigate the response of different antecedent beach conditions to energetic events. The shore protection effect of beach nourishment is apparently evidenced by the fact that post-Eta shoreline was located seaward of those post-Hermine at half of the beach-profile locations in the study area. The shore protection effect in the subaerial portion of the beach, however, is not obvious for the other half of beach profiles where shoreline positions were retreated to similar locations after these two storms. Instead, their shore protection effect occurred in the sub-aqueous portion of the beach and was indicated by higher sandbar crests located closer to the shoreline, which can dissipate and reduce incoming wave energy. The shoreline elevation needs to be properly defined (Mean High Water vs Mean Low Water line) as it is used as a proxy to represent beach volume loss. For Hermine induced beach change, no significant correlation exists between MHW line change and beach volume loss. While a significant correlation exists between MHW line change and beach volume loss induced by TS Eta. This correlation pattern switched if the shoreline here is defined as mean low water line. For efficient beach/shoreline management, multiple proxies (e.g., sandbar height and location of its crest and trough) in addition to shoreline change should be used to assess the performance of beach nourishment project.

Coastal Sediments 2023, pp. 1737-1751 (2023) No AccessBEACH-INLET INTERACTION AND REGIONAL SEDIMENT MANAGEMENT AT PRISTINE AND DEVELOPED BARRIER ISLANDSPING WANG and TANYA M. BECKPING WANGSchool of Geosciences, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620, USA and TANYA M. BECKU.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory, 3909 Halls Ferry Road, Vicksburg, MS 39180, USAhttps://doi.org/10.1142/9789811275135_0159Cited by:0 PreviousNext AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsRecommend to Library ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail Abstract: Barrier-island beaches and tidal inlets are valuable coastal resources and dynamic landforms. They behave as one interconnected barrier-inlet system and must be understood and managed as such. Beach-inlet interaction is complicated, driven by both wave and tidal forcing, and occurs at multiple temporal and spatial scales. The interaction can be illustrated via sediment pathways and quantified with a balanced sediment budget. Regional sediment management (RSM), a systems approach with adequate temporal and spatial scales, constitutes a fundamental modern philosophy in shore protection and restoration. Beach-inlet interaction and sediment pathways play an essential role in the RSM of barrier-inlet systems, a key physical aspect of coastal resilience. This paper reviews the present understanding on beach-inlet interaction and sediment pathways at barrier-inlet systems, and the temporal scales of their morphodynamics, for applications of RSM A RSM decision-making framework including the formulation of a sediment budget is discussed with a case study of a barrier-inlet system in west-central Florida. A systems approach incorporating adequate temporal and spatial scales is essential for modern beach protection and restoration. Understanding and quantifying sediment bypassing, associated pathways and the temporal scales of their morphodynamics are key to the management of tidal inlets and adjacent beaches. Managing sediment resources at a regional scale through a balanced sediment budget constitutes a major component in coastal resilience building. FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Coastal Sediments 2023Metrics History PDF download

Energetic conditions during storms cause major geomorphological changes in coastal environments and drive taphonomic transformations of coastal archaeological sites. Facing the emerging realities of modern climate change and sea-level rise, archaeologists have justifiably focused on erosional processes and the loss of cultural heritage. However, sedimentologists have long recognized that storm-forcing also involves significant (re)depositional processes and the formation of supratidal features. Geoarchaeological research at partially inundated Native American shell mound sites in Tampa Bay, Florida, integrated topobathymetric aerial LiDAR with sub-surface testing to reconstruct complex site-formation histories. These histories include reworking of cultural deposits by contemporary, recent-historical, and ancient storms, forming archaeological tempestites—sediment deposits that have been scoured from and/or deposited within archaeological contexts by storm-forcing. Using sedimentological, zooarchaeological, and radiometric data, as well as post-storm observations, we present methods for recognizing storm-driven redeposition in coastal-estuarine archaeological contexts and demonstrate the potential of archaeo-tempestites for improving archaeological and paleoenvironmental interpretation. Storm-reworking of estuarine shell mounds on the Florida Gulf Coast produces diagnostic signatures in stratigraphy, granulometry, organic content, and mollusk-composition. Ephemeral ground surfaces and overwashed sand-sheets provide suitable loci for radiometric dating of past storm events (14C and OSL). We discuss inter- and intra-site variation among regional archaeo-tempestites to better understand late-Holocene ecosystem transfer and the long-term effects of shell-bearing sites on inshore-estuarine ecological conditions. We consider the absorption of energetic forcing as part of the life-history or use-life of shell-bearing features and suggest that a broader study of Indigenous coastal terraforming may aid modern coastal protection and management efforts.

Heparin, as a glycosaminoglycan, is known for its anticoagulant and antithrombotic properties for several decades. Heparin is a life-saving drug and is widely used for anticoagulation in medical practice. In recent years, there have been extensive studies that heparin plays an important role in non-anticoagulant diseases, such as anti-inflammatory, anti-viral, anti-angiogenesis, anti-neoplastic, anti-metastatic effects, and so on. Clinical observation and in vitro experiments indicate that heparin displays a potential multitarget effect. In this brief review, we will summarize heparin and its derivative's recently studied progress for the treatment of various viral infections. The aim is to maximize the benefits of drugs through medically targeted development, to meet the unmet clinical needs of serious viral diseases.

Barrier island beaches provide important protection, but human development, loss of natural cover, hurricanes, and tropical storms have contributed to widespread beach erosion. Some coastal regions resort to jetties, shore protection structures, and beach nourishment, whereby offshore or other nearby sediment sources are mined and added to the beach. These projects are costly, and their effectiveness must be closely monitored. This article investigates the ability of photogrammetry from an unoccupied aerial vehicle (UAV) to quantify geomorphic changes of the subaerial section to a newly nourished beach. On October 10, 2018, Hurricane Michael moved up the Gulf of Mexico past Tampa Bay, coinciding with an ongoing nourishment project at Indian Rocks Beach. We conducted UAV and ground surveys before and after the hurricane passage and compared point clouds and across-shore profiles at three locations. We compare observed erosional regimes to probabilistically forecast erosional regimes and found they were only minimally present, perhaps reflecting the recent sand additions. An average volume loss of similar to 31 m(3)/m was measured across the three studied sections.