Document Type

Report

Department/Program

Virginia Institute of Marine Science

Publication Date

6-2009

Abstract

Water quality in Chesapeake Bay has degraded over the past 50 years with respect to oxygen depletion and reduced light attenuation. While the causes are numerous, sediment resuspension from wave and tidal action cloud the water column and reduce light attenuation thereby negatively affecting submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) beds. Sediments on the Bay bottom come from upland runoff and shoreline erosion, each of which has significant contributions to the loading of sediments into estuary. The purpose of this report is to assess the present methods used to calculate sediment loading from tidal shoreline erosion that is input to the Chesapeake Bay Water Quality Model (WQM). Specific tasks were to: 1. review and assess the overall methods and assumptions for estimating erosion rates particularly for the Virginia shoreline and provide recommendations for improving the shoreline erosion estimates; 2. Provide assistance in obtaining and applying additional data sets which may improve estimates of shoreline erosion; 3. Review and assess estimated splits of 65%:35% for bank and nearshore erosion.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.21220/V57X4C

Keywords

Sediment, Chesapeake Bay - VA, Water Quality

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

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