William & Mary ScholarWorks

Welcome! William & Mary ScholarWorks preserves and provides access to the research and creative output of William & Mary's faculty, staff, and students.

UPDATE 18th JUNE 2025: Our repository has migrated from Digital Commons to Open Repository DSpace as of this summer. Additional updates and improvements will continue through the Fall semester. Thank you for your patience during this transition.  
 

Communities in WMScholarWorks

Select a community to browse its collections.

Recent Submissions

  • ItemOpen Access
    Captain Sinclair’s Recreational Area West Shoreline Management Plan
    (Virginia Institute of Marine Science, 2023-09) Milligan, Donna; Hardaway, C. Scott; Green, Cameron W.; Wilcox, Christine A.
    Captain Sinclair’s Recreational Area (CSRA) is located on the Severn River and Whittaker Creek in Gloucester County, Virginia. In 2016, a shoreline management plan was developed for CRSA, and a hybrid gapped stone sill living shoreline system and oyster bag sills were installed on the site in 2016 and 2017, respectively. Recently, the 100-acre western peninsula, Captain Sinclair’s Recreational Area–West (CRSA-W), with 2 miles of shoreline across Whittaker Creek from the original shoreline management area was acquired by the Middle Peninsula Chesapeake Bay Public Access Authority (MP-PAA) and assimilated into CRSA. The goal of this project is to determine how erosion can be managed at CSRA-W in coordination with MP-PAA’s goals. The objective was to create a plan that provides the reasoning and knowledge to incentivize reach-based shore protection, habitat enhancement and future coastal resiliency that best aligned with the property owner's preferences, priorities, and ability to fund the project. Shore erosion and coastal resiliency was analyzed holistically to find ways for problems to be solved on a reach basis in a manner that aligns with the property owner's personal priorities and available funding resources. A remote site assessment of the property was conducted to determine the physical characteristics, habitat shifts, and shoreline change rates over time of the site. This was followed by an on-site real-time kinematic elevation survey, nearshore sediment sampling, and up-to-date photography of the site. The site has both low energy and medium-energy wave environments. The western shoreline has low energy, and the eastern shore has very low energy. The southern points are exposed to medium energy, but the shoreline between them is low energy. The site has a low elevation, with an average marsh elevation of 3.25 ft MLW and a maximum upland elevation of 5 ft MLW. As such, the area is especially threatened by flooding from storm surge and sea level rise. Overall, it was determined that the western and southern shorelines are experiencing the highest rates of erosion, which has been increasing in recent years. Ultimately, four different management options were created. The first option is to do nothing and allow the marsh to retreat naturally. The second option is the construction of hybrid stone sill living shoreline systems along the site. The third option is the construction of intertidal oyster reefs along the site, and a variety of proprietary and non-proprietary design examples have been presented. The final option is to incorporate the use of thin layer placement (TLP) to restore and build the marsh habitat with dredged sediment. The MP-PAA regularly utilizes its public properties to help facilitate and test shoreline protection products which are both innovative and new to the Commonwealth. One such product, Quickreef, offered to donate units to demonstrate technology at a low to moderate energy shoreline location on an MP-PAA owned property. Since the effectiveness of the Quickreef units will be evaluated and better understood by the time construction occurs at the CSRA-W property, Middle Peninsula Planning District Commission staff on behalf of the MP-PAA selected to design Quickreef sill living shoreline systems as a first possible targeted location solution amongst the proposed concepts in areas with firmer nearshore sediment with the higher upland areas, along with the construction of both larger Natrx concrete oyster reef structures and smaller intertidal oyster reefs in the softer nearshore areas. They have also expressed interest in pursuing TLP and marsh enhancement in the future. The shoreline management plan has factored in strategies for the MP-PAA to acquire funding and permitting for these designs, and is focused on the implementation of this project. This report provides an overall summary of the site assessment, shore survey, data analysis, and management planning undertaken for the site.
  • ItemOpen Access
    New Point Comfort Natural Area Preserve Shoreline Management Plan
    (Virginia Institute of Marine Science, 2023-01) Milligan, Donna; Hardaway Jr, C. Scott; Green, Cameron W.; Wilcox, Christine
    The New Point Comfort Natural Area Preserve is located in Mathews County, Virginia on the New Point Comfort peninsula between Mobjack Bay and Chesapeake Bay. The 105-acre site is owned and managed by The Nature Conservancy and provides food and habitat for local and migratory birds, as well as vital protection for the federally-threatened northeastern beach tiger beetle (Cicindela dorsalis). The area is primarily marsh shoreline along Mobjack Bay, of which 1,900 feet was the focus for site specific shoreline management. However, the Chesapeake Bay shoreline and coast adjacent to the observation walkway were also included in management planning. The Shoreline Studies Program at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science was tasked with two goals: 1) to determine how erosion can be managed at the site using The Nature Conservancy’s goals, and 2) to create a “next generation” management plan that incorporates previous knowledge of Chesapeake Bay shore protection, site assessment, and design. The objective of this project is to create a plan utilizes a holistic approach to incentivize reach-based shore protection while simultaneously enhancing habitat and future coastal resiliency along a singular reach. What was found during the site assessment process was that the shoreline is a high energy site, primarily eroding (-1.0 ft/yr) saltmarsh habitat that transitions into an accreting and migrating low sand overwash and dune system to the south. Additionally, the access road at the site sits at a relatively low elevation, which floods during moderate storm events. In response, the Shoreline Studies Program has created several suggested management options including a hands-off managed retreat approach, a variety of sill system designs, utilizing artificial intertidal oyster reef systems, a headland control rock sill living shoreline system, and thin-layer sediment placement. After providing these suggestions to The Nature Conservancy, they decided that 3D-printed Natrx intertidal oyster reef modules were the management strategy that best suited their goals. Six structures ranging from 81 to 196 ft long are proposed to be placed at mean low water along the marsh shoreline. It is the hope of both the Shoreline Studies Program and The Nature Conservancy that this strategy will provide shoreline protection to conserve this vital protected habitat as well as create new oyster habitat. This project is year 1 of a two-year project. The overall goal was to develop a framework that can be used for next generation management planning and applying it to a site, NCPNAP. The framework is included as an appendix to this report. It is in progress as the framework may be refined during Year 2 when it is applied to another site.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Embracing Bookness: Introducing Library Staff and Library Students to Text and Data Mining with HathiTrust Research Center
    (Association of College Research Libraries, 2025-09) Hogan, Rachel N.; Williams, Patrick
    In this chapter, we explore the affordances and benefits of teaching foundational text and data mining (TDM) skills to library staff and library school students using HathiTrust Digital Library (HTDL) and the associated HathiTrust Research Center (HTRC).1 HTDL provides access to more than 18 million volumes sourced from academic and public libraries in order to advance the goals of scholars and researchers, independent from corporate interest.2 HTDL represents an enormous source of texts familiar and unfamiliar to potential workshop audiences.
  • ItemOpen Access
    GIS Data – 2025 Shoreline Management Model - York County
    (Virginia Institute of Marine Science, 2025-09-29) Nunez, M. Karinna; Rudnicky, Tamia; Darling-Hendricks, Jessica; Duning, Catherine; Hill, Evan; Graulich, Jack; Lv, Miranda; Gregory, Sean; Angstadt, Kory
    In 2011, the Virginia General Assembly adopted a policy into law that specifies living shorelines as the preferred management practice for erosion control in Virginia waters. The Center for Coastal Resources Management (CCRM) at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) has been developing tools for many years to guide local governments in shoreline management. In particular, they have focused on the use of ecologically preferred alternatives for erosion control and have conducted research into refining the appropriate uses for a large suite of possible treatments based on existing shoreline conditions. A series of Decision Trees were developed to determine shoreline best management practices (BMPs) when conducting onsite inspections. These were developed to support integrated guidance at the management and regulatory level. This body of work has been expanded and re-developed as a GIS spatial model known as the Shoreline Management Model (SMM) to determine appropriate shoreline BMPs from the desktop using available spatial data and the decision tree logic. The assessment is conducted at a parcel level scale, but the output represents a reach-based or cumulative approach to shoreline management. In 2023, CCRM began an update of the SMM. Version 6.0 continues to use fetch, nearshore bathymetry, bank height, marsh presence, beach presence, presence of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV), roads and permanent structures within the riparian zone, and existing shoreline erosion control structures. To enhance the model’s capabilities for evaluating best management practices and determining where erosion control practices may impact ecologically sensitive areas, version 6.0 adds wave energy, federal Form 06/27/2023 navigation channels, presence of RTE species via predicted suitable habitat, bank slope, and narrow creeks. Most appropriate for desktop reviews, regulatory compliance, and comprehensive planning, the recommendations derived from the SMM may be altered due to lot size, shoreline length along a single parcel, proximity of primary buildings to the shoreline, type of existing erosion control structures, land use practices, and local biota. The SMM v.6.0 also includes a module that identifies suitable areas for oyster structure placement, which can provide erosion control and habitat enhancement benefits.
  • ItemOpen Access
    GIS Data – 2025 Shoreline Management Model - Middlesex County
    (Virginia Institute of Marine Science, 2025-09-29) Nunez, M. Karinna; Rudnicky, Tamia; Darling-Hendricks, Jessica; Duning, Catherine; Hill, Evan; Graulich, Jack; Lv, Miranda; Gregory, Sean; Angstadt, Kory
    In 2011, the Virginia General Assembly adopted a policy into law that specifies living shorelines as the preferred management practice for erosion control in Virginia waters. The Center for Coastal Resources Management (CCRM) at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) has been developing tools for many years to guide local governments in shoreline management. In particular, they have focused on the use of ecologically preferred alternatives for erosion control and have conducted research into refining the appropriate uses for a large suite of possible treatments based on existing shoreline conditions. A series of Decision Trees were developed to determine shoreline best management practices (BMPs) when conducting onsite inspections. These were developed to support integrated guidance at the management and regulatory level. This body of work has been expanded and re-developed as a GIS spatial model known as the Shoreline Management Model (SMM) to determine appropriate shoreline BMPs from the desktop using available spatial data and the decision tree logic. The assessment is conducted at a parcel level scale, but the output represents a reach-based or cumulative approach to shoreline management. In 2023, CCRM began an update of the SMM. Version 6.0 continues to use fetch, nearshore bathymetry, bank height, marsh presence, beach presence, presence of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV), roads and permanent structures within the riparian zone, and existing shoreline erosion control structures. To enhance the model’s capabilities for evaluating best management practices and determining where erosion control practices may impact ecologically sensitive areas, version 6.0 adds wave energy, federal Form 06/27/2023 navigation channels, presence of RTE species via predicted suitable habitat, bank slope, and narrow creeks. Most appropriate for desktop reviews, regulatory compliance, and comprehensive planning, the recommendations derived from the SMM may be altered due to lot size, shoreline length along a single parcel, proximity of primary buildings to the shoreline, type of existing erosion control structures, land use practices, and local biota. The SMM v.6.0 also includes a module that identifies suitable areas for oyster structure placement, which can provide erosion control and habitat enhancement benefits.
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