Designing Environmental Indicator Systems for Public Decisions

Government agencies and academic scientists have developed reliable sets of environmental indicators to assist in making decisions. This very recent trend has been driven in part by scientific advances that make it possible to construct indicators that are both rigorous and informative, and in part by policies that seek to justify environmental expenditures as likely to produce the beneficial results that they intend. Environmental indicators offer the promise of applying science to help decisionmakers select tools that will produce predictable outcomes in measurable ways. In this article we examine a specific element of the emerging environmental indicator model: the connection of the indicator with the decisionmaker. Although most research programs have assumed that if indicators are scientifically valid, public decisionmakers will use them to make better decisions, this assumption is not always justified

The Coastal Primary Sand Dune and Beach Act

This document presents the supporting information and justification for the following recommendations: • Adding Middlesex County and Westmoreland County to the list of localities authorized to adopt the model ordinance of the Coastal Primary Sand Dune and Beach Act (Title 28.2, Chapter 14 of the Virginia Code) would result in the inclusion of significant dune resources into Virginia’s tidal shoreline management program. • Adding the localities of Charles City, Essex, Gloucester, Isle of Wight, James City, King and Queen, King George, Middlesex, New Kent, Newport News, Prince George, Richmond (county), Stafford, Surry, Westmoreland, and York to the list of localities authorized to adopt the model ordinance of the Coastal Primary Sand Dune and Beach Act would result in the inclusion of significant beach resources into Virginia’s tidal shoreline management program. This action also would address the lack of oversight for dunes currently excluded from the Coastal Primary Sand Dune and Beach Act for Middlesex County and Westmoreland County. • Modifying the Coastal Primary Sand Dune and Beach Act to include all of Tidewater Virginia as defined in § 28.2-100 of the Virginia Code would eliminate all remaining deficiencies in the regulatory oversight of tidal shorelines, resulting in a fully comprehensive management program

An Analysis of Shoreline Development Risk for Secondary Dune Systems in Tidewater Virginia with Associated Management Recommendations

This project was done in response to concerns by environmental resource managers of historic and potential adverse impacts to Virginia’s secondary dune ecosystems. Virginia environmental regulatory programs have little decision-making authority over the use of secondary dunes as these areas are not included in the Coastal Primary Sand Dune Act (the Dunes Act). These areas function as estuarine edge habitat and provide natural upland erosion control, and are thus valuable to estuarine and coastal plain fauna and adjacent upland property owners

An Assessment of Wildlife Utilization between a Man-made Marsh, an Adjacent Natural Marsh, and a Nearby Natural Marsh in Virginia

The present study investigates the functions and values of man-made and natural tidal wetlands. The study is among the first to use simultaneous sampling techniques to investigate animal use preference between man-made and adjacent natural tidal wetlands

Tidal Sediment Yield Estimate Methodology in Virginia for the Chesapeake Bay Program Water Quality Model

Water quality in Chesapeake Bay has degraded over the past 50 years with respect to oxygen depletion and reduced light attenuation. While the causes are numerous, sediment resuspension from wave and tidal action cloud the water column and reduce light attenuation thereby negatively affecting submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) beds. Sediments on the Bay bottom come from upland runoff and shoreline erosion, each of which has significant contributions to the loading of sediments into estuary. The purpose of this report is to assess the present methods used to calculate sediment loading from tidal shoreline erosion that is input to the Chesapeake Bay Water Quality Model (WQM). Specific tasks were to: 1. review and assess the overall methods and assumptions for estimating erosion rates particularly for the Virginia shoreline and provide recommendations for improving the shoreline erosion estimates; 2. Provide assistance in obtaining and applying additional data sets which may improve estimates of shoreline erosion; 3. Review and assess estimated splits of 65%:35% for bank and nearshore erosion

Sands of the Chesapeake

This is a short phamplet outlining the origin, composition, and dune structure of sandy shores of the Chesapeake Bay region

Dune Evolution Accomack County, Virginia Chesapeake Bay Shorelines

Shoreline evolution is the change in shore position through time. In fact, it is the material resistance of the coastal geologic underpinnings against the impinging hydrodynamic (and aerodynamic) forces. Along the shores of Chesapeake Bay, it is a process-response system. The processes at work include winds, waves, tides and currents, which shape and modify coastlines by eroding, transporting and depositing sediments. The shore line is commonly plotted and measured to provide a rate of change but it is as important to understand the geomorphic patterns of change. Shore analysis provides the basis to know how a particular coast has changed through time and how it might proceed in the future. The purpose of this report is to document how the dunes on Chesapeake Bay shores of Accomack (Figure 1) have evolved since 1938. Aerial imagery was taken for most of the Bay region beginning that year, and it is this imagery that allows one to assess the geomorphic nature of shore change. Aerial imagery shows how the coast has changed, how beaches, dunes, bars, and spits have grown or decayed, how barriers have breached, how inlets have changed course, and how one shore type has displaced another or has not changed at all. Shore change is a natural process but, quite often, the impacts of man through shore hardening or inlet stabilization come to dominate a given shore reach. Most of the change in shore positions where dunes occur will be quantified in this report. Others, particularly very irregular coasts, around inlets, and other complicated areas will be subject to interpretation