Geoscience Consultants has recently moved its office to Sullivan’s Island South Carolina. This brings all kinds of fun opportunities to get out there, learn, analyze, and hone the observation skills. To share this information I have started an on-line site that highlights some of the more timely coastal processes and their effects on Sullivan’s Island. I will be bringing in as many data sets as I can to describe the processes and changes that occur, along with the implications for homeowners. I will, at times, push the envelope to test analysis techniques but also try to describe it in as ‘normal’ a fashion as I can. My online mapping skills are presently so-so, and I will be doing what I can to 1) get better at it and 2) bring interactive near-real-time mapping to Sullivan’s Island. You can skip ahead to the site or continue reading below.

So, the backstory - and there are always backstories - as to what has kinda spurred this effort is that Sullivan’s Island (SI) has an apparent and unfortunately real ‘issue’ with an historically accreting beach, although that historic trend is likely to change (if it hasn’t already). How is that an ‘issue’ you may rightfully ask, well if you want to live ‘on the beach’ it can be. The town is being divided by the idea of what homeowners want in beach living. Some want to feel and see the ocean and some want a level of coastal resilience and natural coastal habitat. I get it, and I think it depends largely on your temporal (length of time) viewpoint.

If I go on vacation to a hotel on the beach, well, I want the wind in my face and to see the ocean and waves on the beach. If I live in that hotel on the beach, maybe I am a bit less adamant that I feel the wind and see the waves rolling in every day. If I stretch my temporal view and want my kids to enjoy living in that hotel as I have, I would want a big buffer between the hotel and the wind and waves.

I am in the second or third category and have classic training in the evolution of barrier islands - which is what Sullivan’s Island is. Barrier Islands change, the actual land area of Sullivans Island cannot really be measured accurately. Barrier Islands accrete and they erode (daily); they move. This is no surprise, we have all seen the features that indicate this and is what makes a walk on the beach new and interesting each time. Unfortunately, however, I think the idea of assuming this island is generally accreting has lowered our guard. Sort of like thinking the Corona virus would stay in China.

Change is part of the draw but it is also something we have to be mindful of. Linear trends are one thing, but when you insert human induced change into the mix, and I am not purely talking about the climate, there can be non-linear, or unexpected, change. That is essentially how we got here; it is large part due to the Charleston jetties that Sullivan’s Island has benefited and grown seaward; the island accreted between the 1940’s and 2000 on a massive scale. Great for Sullivan’s, not so great for Folly and Morris Islands. Maybe that is/was true, but next comes dredging to keep that channel open, and in this case a very deep channel. What happens to Sullivan’s Island, which is only a couple hundred meters from that very deep channel, when it is artificially maintained to a new depth and with a potential increase in the tidal prism?

These are among the things I hope to address in this work - especially now that the Corona virus is keeping us at home. My goals are to look at 1) Shoreline Change now and into the future, 2) inundation risks now and in the future, and 3) changes to the back-side of the island in the form of marsh migration. To keep this ‘Blog’ tidy I am setting up a separate site where you can follow the data and analysis if you are interested. You can find it HERE. Also, if you have any specific questions - please send along to keil@geosciconsultants.com and I will try to tackle it with real data and analysis.

Sullivans Island Coastal Analysis - Fun On A Beautiful Beach