Shoreline Evolution: Westmoreland County, Virginia Potomac River and Rappahannock River Shorelines

Authors

Donna A. Milligan, Virginia Institute of Marine ScienceFollow
Christine Wilcox, Virginia Institute of Marine ScienceFollow
C. Scott Hardaway Jr., Virginia Institute of Marine ScienceFollow
Mary C. Cox, Virginia Institute of Marine ScienceFollow

Document Type

Report

Department/Program

Virginia Institute of Marine Science

Publication Date

9-2012

Abstract

Westmoreland County is situated along the Potomac River and Rappahannock River. Through time, the County’s shoreline has evolved, and determining the rates and patterns of shore change provides the basis to know how a particular coast has changed through time and how it might proceed in the future. Along Chesapeake Bay’s estuarine shores, winds, waves, tides and currents shape and modify coastlines by eroding, transporting and depositing sediments. The purpose of this report is to document how the shore zone of Westmoreland County has evolved since 1937. Aerial imagery was taken for most of the Bay region beginning that year and can be used to assess the geomorphic nature of shore change. Aerial photos show how the coast has changed, how beaches, dunes, bars, and spits have grown or decayed, how barriers have breached, how inlets have changed course, and how one shore type has displaced another or has not changed at all. Shore change is a natural process but, quite often, the impacts of man, through shore hardening or inlet stabilization, come to dominate a given shore reach. In addition to documenting historical shorelines, the change in shore positions along the rivers and larger creeks in Westmoreland County will be quantified in this report. The shorelines of very irregular coasts, small creeks around inlets, and other complicated areas will be shown but not quantified.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.21220/V5B027

Keywords

Shoreline Evolution, Westmoreland County, Chesapeake Bay, Aerial Photography, Human impact, GIS

Funding

This project was funded by the Virginia Coastal Zone Management Program at the Department of Environmental Quality through Grant #NA11NOS4190122 of the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, under the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972, as amended.

Recommended Citation

Milligan, D. A., Wilcox, C., Hardaway, C., & Cox, M. C. (2012) Shoreline Evolution: Westmoreland County, Virginia Potomac River and Rappahannock River Shorelines. Virginia Institute of Marine Science, William & Mary. https://doi.org/10.21220/V5B027