The Impact of 2004 Hurricane Season on Beach Erosion in
Volusia County, Florida
Valentina DavidBethune-Cookman CollegeDaytona Beach, FL 32114
NASA Summer Faculty Research OpportunitiesJune 6 – August 12, 2005
DeNeice GuestScience Systems And Applications, Inc.
Significance of Beach
• Revenue source• Tourist attraction• Economic growth• Coastal habitat• Exotic vegetation• Turtle nesting
Tourism in Volusia county, Revenue
• 9.5 million tourists• Spent $3.7 billion ($435/person)• Tourist Tax is $4,536,520• Convention tax is $6,908,644• Economic impact of events is $612 million• Events are Speed week, bike week, Spring
break, Independence day.
• http://floridabusiness.org/impact.htm
Outline
• 2004 hurricane season
• Study area description
• Methodology
• Change detection analysis
• Quantification of beach loss
• Conclusion
2004 Hurricane Season
• 16 Storms
• 8 Hurricanes
• 4 Hitting Florida
• 3 Cross over Volusia County– Charley– Frances– Jeanne
• $42 million dollars in damages
Hurricane Charley August 9-14, 2004
Hurricane FrancisAugust 25-September 10, 2004
Hurricane JeanneSeptember 13-27, 2004
Methodology
• Acquire Landsat TM 30m data, 1999 and 2004• Erdas Imagine 8.7• Define study area using county vector map• Subset imagery• DOQQ for Volusia County 2000, 2004• Unsupervised classification• Break out mixed clusters• Supervised classification• Majority filter• Final recode for classification map• Accuracy Assessment• Change detection
Study Area
Study Area
Erosion Examples
Erosion Examples
Erosion Examples
Target Class for evaluation
Beach, from back shore to foreshore
Accuracy Assessment
50 Random Points 1999 2004
Overall Classification Accuracy (6 classes)
94% 90.24%
Overall Kappa Statistics 0.9151 0.8719
Change Detection
Ponce Inlet, New Smyrna
Change Detection
Area in Sq. miles 1999 - 2004
Decreased 2.87
Increased 1.04
Net loss 1.83
Conclusion
• Landsat TM data was successful in identifying beach erosion in Volusia County, Florida
• Net loss of beach was 1.83 mi2
• Cost to the county, in beach replenishment was $6 – 8 millions for 800,000yd3 in 6 miles of beach
• This information can be used by Volusia County Managers in a Decision Support System to determine the most effective area for beach replenishment
• In future Remote Sensing technique may be useful for a quick beach erosion assessment
Future Plans
• Ground truthing• Meet with Volusia
County managers to discuss the results
• Acquire Landsat image for 2005 for continuation of beach erosion study
• Involve students from Bethune-Cookman College in the studies
• Completed• Collaboration is
continued• Not yet, need grant
or financial support
• One Physics major student is doing senior research project.
