Application and Integration of Science in South Carolina's Grand Strand Renourishment Project

The Grand Strand is a 26 mile stretch of coastline centered around Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. This region hosts approximately 14 million visitors annually, and accounts for nearly a third of the state's tourism revenue. Ever increasing anthropogenic pressures on coastal regions in combination with rising sea level and potentially greater storm frequency make effective beachfront management critical to the economic and social welfare of the state. The Beach Erosion Research Monitoring (BERM) program at Coastal Carolina University (CCU) conducts beach erosion surveys to assist in managing South Carolina's coasts. This presentation will focus on the use of scientific data associated with the Grand Strand renourishment project scheduled to begin pumping sand in November 2007. The role of the BERM program at Coastal Carolina University in this project includes: pre and post-assessment surveys of beach geometry throughout the region, offshore surveys of borrow sites, monitoring of the project with beach cameras linked to the web in real-time.