Eve's Research

Current Projects

An aerial view of a barrier island with washover sand visible amongst marshy and dune areas.

Washover is sediment pushed landward from the beach and the dunes. In barrier island systems this is a crucial source of sediment. 

Researchers stand on an oyster reef preparing to take a sediment core with a long aluminum tube.

Oyster reefs grow naturally in many Atlantic estuaries, providing erosion protection and important ecosystem services. 

 Past Projects

Wrack is vegetation and other organic material that washes up on beaches naturally. The benefits of this material are explored in this study.

A view down the coast after the impact of a hurricane showing eroded dunes on the left with vegetation roots hanging out and water on the right. Homes on stilts are in the background, with water reaching up under them.

Hurricanes regularly impact the southern and eastern coasts of the U.S. This work developed methods to easily map large-scale coastal impacts, including erosion and foredune change.  

An underwater image of a Halodule wrightii seagrass meadow on a sandy bottom.

Submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) provides important ecosystem services including habitat and food sources for important marine species. Understanding geomorphological and sedimentological habitat requirements is important for restoration efforts. 

A conceptual diagram of rectangular sediment budget cells along a coastline showing sources and sinks of sediment.

Sediment budgets allow coastal managers to account for sources and sinks along the coastline and can help understand why certain areas are eroding or accumulating sediment. The Sediment Budget Analysis System was developed with these goals in mind. 

A satellite image of the Green Bay area along Lake Michigan with points along the coast indicating different coastal areas.

Great Lakes coastlines face sediment deficit and bluff erosion challenges. In this work, large-scale, automated remote sensing mapping helps to quantify this by tracking bluff edge change over time. 

An aerial view of a barrier island with a recently placed large sand nourishment.

Barrier Island Volume Change

Regional lidar datasets provide topographic and bathymetric elevation data. These can be used to understand island-wide sediment volume changes including during major hurricane impacts such as Hurricane Katrina's impact to the Gulf Islands National Seashore.