Human Impacts on Barrier Island Evolution
Lead: Shane Nichols-Oneill
Counselor: Jorge Lorenzo-Trueba
This MACH-affiliated project examines how New Jersey’s Island Beach–Barnegat Inlet–Long Beach Island system has evolved under both natural processes and human interventions, with the goal of understanding how barrier islands may respond if future coastal engineering is reduced. Using historical maps and a sediment-budget modeling framework, MACH researcher Shane Nichols-Oneill shows that even small-scale 19th-century jetties at Barnegat Inlet triggered system-wide changes by altering inlet geometry, redirecting sediment fluxes, and causing the flood-tidal delta to grow far beyond its natural state. This additional sediment trapping reduced downdrift supply to Long Beach Island, accelerating shoreline retreat and shifting the island from its natural pattern of rotation to widespread erosion. The results demonstrate that modest, localized engineering can have cascading morphological impacts across an entire barrier-inlet system, underscoring the need to consider regional sediment dynamics when evaluating future coastal management strategies.
This project is led by a MACH research affiliate who does not receive direct financial support from NSF award ICER-2103754.
Products
Publications
Nichols-O’Neill, Shane. (2023). Quantifying Local and Regional Effects of Human Development on Centennial Barrier Island Evolution : Insights from Barnegat Inlet, New Jersey. Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects. 1357. https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/etd/1357
Conference Presentations
S. Nichols-O’Neill, J. Lorenzo-Trueba, D.J. Ciarletta, J. Miselis. (2023). Exploring centennial barrier-inlet evolution: Insights from undeveloped and developed phases at Barnegat Inlet, New Jersey; Coastal Sediments, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
S. Nichols-O’Neill, J. Lorenzo-Trueba, D.J. Ciarletta, J. Miselis. (2021). On the transition from undeveloped to developed barrier island behavior: The case of Long Beach Island, New Jersey; American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting, New Orleans.