Quantitative Analysis of Shoreline Change, Sargent, Texas

The constantly increasing urban and industrial demands on Texas shorelines have placed great stress on a delicately balanced environment. There are tremendous political and economic incentives for the development of methods which will predict the reaction of the coastal system to planned man-made changes on or near the coastline, This thesis examines a method for shoreline stability analysis which could be used in conjunction with conventional studies of beach erosion rates to provide a more thorough understanding of the interaction of waves, the longshore current, and the coastal sediments. A method for the prediction of erosion and deposition rates related to the interaction of longshore currents and the sediment discharged at the mouth of a river is developed, and this method is applied to the new Brazos River delta near Freeport, Texas.