About The Data

An example Beach Nourishment table for North Topsail Beach

Explanation of Beach Nourishment Episode Attributes

Location: A beach, park, island, community or other commonly-recognized jurisdictional designation encompassing and identifying the geographic boundary and/or extent of shoreline upon which sediment has been emplaced.

Year Completed: The year in which a nourishment episode was completed. Beach nourishment typically commences in the late fall/early winter due to environmental and ecological concerns. As a result, nourishment episodes usually begin at the end of the year and wrap-up early the next year.

Primary Funding Source: The public or private entity providing the majority of the funding for a nourishment episode. These include:

Federal: Tax dollars spent by the US Army Corps of Engineers or FEMA.
Local: Tax dollars spent by the administration of a particular town or district with representatives elected by those who live there.
Private: Funds provided by a non-governmental entity having no official or public role or position.
State: Funds provided by members or representatives of a unit of government that specifically makes and enforces laws for a state.

Justification: The primary reason why a beach was nourished. These include:

Bypass: Artificially moving sand from an updrift beach to a downdrift beach to bypass a natural or artificial obstruction such as an inlet or jetty.
Coastal Impact Assistance Program: Federal grant funds derived from federal offshore lease revenues to the oil-producing states of Alabama, Alaska, California, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas for conservation, protection, or restoration of coastal areas.
Demonstration: A US Army Corps of Engineers experimental effort that places sand in an offshore location, rather than directly on a beach.
Ecosystem Restoration: An effort to reestablish or improve coastal habitat that has been degraded or damaged by natural or human activities.
Emergency: Designed to create an artificial beach berm to provide a minimum level of protection to vulnerable coastal development, usually post-storm. All Federal nourishment episodes classified as Emergency are funded through FEMA or the US Army Corps of Engineers.
Emergency Dune: Designed to construct an artificial dune to provide a minimum level of protection to vulnerable coastal development, usually post-storm.
Navigation: Sediment (known as dredge spoil) resulting from a navigation-related dredging effort is placed on a beach rather than dumped offshore or in an upland location.
Section 111: Mitigation of shoreline damages attributable to Federal navigation structures (jetties).
Shore Protection: Nourishment episodes undertaken for the primary purpose of reducing storm-related damage to static human economic development placed behind dynamic shorelines.

Length: The linear distance of shoreline upon which sediment has been emplaced, measured in feet.

Volume: Volume is the quantity of sand emplaced on a beach during a beach nourishment episode measured in cubic yards.

Total Cost: The cost (amount spent) on a beach nourishment episode in the year the episode was completed, measured in US dollars.

Adjusted Cost (2022): The nominal cost of a beach nourishment episode adjusted for inflation using the most recent US Consumer Price Index, measured in US dollars.

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