Lead: Shane Nichols-Oneill
Counselor: Jorge Lorenzo-Trueba

This MACH-affiliated project aims to improve understanding of undeveloped barrier island evolution to help prepare for potential coastal management scenarios where coastal engineering is scaled back and barrier islands are allowed to change over time under more natural conditions. Using Island Beach, Barnegat Inlet, and Long Beach Island, located on New Jersey’s southeastern coast as case studies, MACH researcher Shane Nichols-Oneill analyzes historical maps and numerical models to assess the impacts of natural processes and human impacts on barrier island evolution. Nichols-Oneill finds that even small-scale coastal engineering efforts can have system-wide effects, completely shifting Long Beach Island’s landscape compared to its natural state, suggesting consequences should be examined beyond local effects when altering coastal engineering strategies moving forward.