Galveston Island: Texas' First Open Beach Nourishment Project, 1995-2001, Texas A&M University at Galveston.

Galvestion Island on the upper Texas Gulf Coast has been subjec tto rapid rates of shorline erosion (order 1 to 2m per year) in the past few decades.In early spring 1995, the city of Galveston responded to this erosion threat by conducting a moderate beach nourishment project (750,000 cubic yards) in the commercially important Galveston groin field area. This nourishment event was backed up by smaller nourishments (about 70,000 cubic yards per year) in the spring of 1998, 1999, and 2000. In this paper, we develope a shoreline change model (GENESIS) of the Galveston shoreline with a particular focus on the Galveston nourishment project. The model is calibrated on the basis of the measured 1965 an s1990 shorelines and verified on the basis of the measured 1990 and 2000 shorelines. The verification run included the beach fill associated with the nourishment project. the calibratd and verified model is used to simulate shoreline change between 1990 and 2000 based on a number of what if scenarios. For example, the model examins the shoreline change that might have occured if there has been no more beach nourishment. also, the simulation considers the inpact of T-groins and offshore breakwaters. Not surprisingly, these simulations demonstrate that the groin field area is very sensitive to the shoreline control practices that were applied to the groin field.