Fig. 2. Pikes Inlet, New York, December 18, 1992, about 6 days after inception of breaching.

Kraus2_CEJ_03
Page Navigation
5

flooding transported a large amount of sediment into the bay and navigation channel.

At both sites, the breach occurred because the beach adjacent to the jetty became

narrow in great part due to erosion or scalloping along the bayside intersection of

the barrier island and jetty (Seabergh, 1999). Kraus and Wamsley (2003) discuss

these and other locations and causes of potential breaching at other inlets stabilized

by jetties in the United States.

Most detailed measurements and numerical models pertain to breaching of dikes,

which differs from coastal breaching by being catastrophic and lasting on the order

of hours, and by the absence longshore sediment transport that would tend to close

the inlet. Visser (1998b) summarizes the literature of dike breaching in general

and recent modeling (Steetzel and Visser, 1992; Visser, 1988, 1994, 1998a) and

measurements (Visser, Vrijling, and Verhagen 1990; Visser et al. 1995; de Loof et al.

1996) conducted by the Dutch research community (Kraak et al. 1994).

Concerning predictive numerical modeling, Visser (1994, 1998) describes a five-

stage two-dimensional model of sediment transport and morphology change (depth