Document Type
Report
Department/Program
Virginia Institute of Marine Science
Publication Date
9-2011
Abstract
Richmond County is situated on the Northern Neck Peninsula in the eastern portion of Virginia (Figure 1). The Rappahannock River forms the southern boundary of this 192 square mile community. The County has 149 miles of shoreline on the Rappahannock River and Cat Point and Totuskey Creeks. 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 Richmond 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 Richmond 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/V59H9R
Keywords
Shoreline Evolution, Shoreline Management, GIS, Aerial Photography, Virginia
Funding
This project was funded by the Virginia Coastal Zone Management Program at the Department of Environmental Quality through Grant #NA10NOS4190205 of the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, under the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972, as amended. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of Commerce, NOAA, or any of its subagencies.
Recommended Citation
Milligan, D. A., Wilcox, C., & Hardaway, C. (2011) Shoreline Evolution: Richmond County, Virginia Rappahannock River Shorelines. Virginia Institute of Marine Science, William & Mary. https://doi.org/10.21220/V59H9R
