January 20, 2004
10:23
WSPC/101-CEJ
00092
Coastal Engineering Journal, Vol. 45, No. 4 (2003) 565600
c World Scientific Publishing Company and Japan Society of Civil Engineers
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN THE GEOMORPHIC
INVESTIGATION OF ENGINEERED TIDAL INLETS
DUNCAN M. FITZGERALD
Department of Earth Sciences, Boston University,
675 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215
dunc@bu.edu
GARY A. ZARILLO
Division of Marine and Environmental Systems,
Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne FL 32901
zarillo@fit.edu
SHELLEY JOHNSTON
Department of Earth Sciences,
Boston University, Boston, MA 02215
shelleyj@bu.edu
Received 15 July 2003
Revised 27 October 2003
In recent years, numerous technological advances have made field studies and laboratory
analyses of tidal inlets more time efficient while also substantially improved data qual-
ity. Mapping channel bathymetry was once a labor-intensive task that was accomplished
by measuring water depths along a detailed network of channel profiles. Now aircraft-
operated Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) can accurately map the bathymetry of
most tidal inlets in a few hours' time. If greater detail of the channel bottom is required,