Coastal Glossary

A | B | C | D | E | I | L | M | R | S | W

Term	Definition
A
Armouring	Coastal erosion-the loss of shoreline sediment - is a complex process that continuously reshapes the shoreline and can threaten coastal property. With approximately 350,000 structures located within 500 feet of the nation�s shoreline, erosion is a problem many U.S. coastal communities must address. Coastal managers and property owners often attempt to stabilize coastal land and protect residential and commercial infrastructure along the coast by building shoreline armoring structures to hold back the sea and prevent the loss of sediment. Examples of such structures are seawalls, breakwaters, and riprap. [NOAA. What is shoreline armouring? National Ocean Service website, https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/shoreline-armoring.html, 07/03/18.]
B
Barrier Beach	Barrier beaches are narrow, low-lying strips of beach and dunes that are roughly parallel to the coastline and are separated from the mainland by a body of water or wetland. Hundreds of barrier beaches line the Massachusetts coastline. These landforms were created and are constantly changed by coastal processes, such as erosion, overwash during storms, dune movement, and inlet formation and migration. These dynamic systems are a tremendous resource providing recreation opportunities for beachgoers, fishermen, and off-road vehicle users; storm and flood protection for mainland areas; and habitat for plants and wildlife, including numerous rare and endangered species. In addition, many of these barrier beaches have been developed for recreational, residential, and commercial purposes. Managing barrier beaches to meet these competing uses is a complex task facing many local communities, organizations, and homeowners. [Massachusetts CZM. Barrier Beach Management in Massachusetts. Mass.gov website, https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/podcast/july17/nop08-historical-maps-charts.html, accessed on 06/18/19.]
Beach Profiling	Beach profiling is a simple survey technique used to measure the contour of a beach. Very basic equipment, made from two 1.5 meter rods connected by a 3 meter rope, is used to create a line-of-sight with the horizon. The difference in elevation between the two poles defines the topographic change on that segment of the beach. The magnitude of this difference in elevation, in centimeters, is recorded as a single data point. These data points are recorded at regular intervals (also known as �jumps�) down the beach, from the frontal dune (or seawall) to the low water mark. When these data points are connected, they create a graphic depiction of the contour of the beach, also known as the beach profile. This method of collecting beach profile data is known as the Emery Method. [UNH Seagrant. Beach profiling method. PDF, https://seagrant.unh.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdfs/extension/CRV/nhbeachprofilingmethods.pdf, accessed on 06/18/19.]
Berm	Berm, terrace of a beach that has formed in the backshore, above the water level at high tide. Berms are commonly found on beaches that have fairly coarse sand and are the result of the deposition of material by low-energy waves. They have a marked change of slope at their seaward edge and a flat or reverse-sloped platform that lies slightly higher than the mean high-water level. On broad beaches there may be three or more subparallel berms, each formed under different wave conditions. On some beaches a berm several metres wide may be laid down each summer and destroyed each winter by high storm waves. [Encyclopedia Britannica. Berm Geology. Britannica.com, https://www.britannica.com/science/berm, accessed on 06/18/19.]
C
Conservation	Conservation, study of the loss of Earth�s biological diversity and the ways this loss can be prevented. Biological diversity, or biodiversity, is the variety of life either in a particular place or on the entire planet Earth, including its ecosystems, species, populations, and genes. Conservation thus seeks to protect life�s variety at all levels of biological organization. [Encyclopedia Britannica. Conservation Ecology. Britannica.com, https://www.britannica.com/science/conservation-ecology, accessed on 06/18/19.]
Culvert	The traditional definition of a culvert is a small structure that forms a hole through an embankment and has no superstructure, substructure or deck. This definition has become somewhat distorted in recent years with the introduction of the precast concrete rectangular box culverts (three- or four-sided), which can be installed with no fill on top of them. The traditional culvert was a simple round shape constructed of galvanized corrugated steel or of reinforced concrete. [OH DOT. Culverts, www.dot.stat.oh.us, http://www.dot.state.oh.us/Divisions/Engineering/Structures/bridge%20operations%20and%20maintenance/PreventiveMaintenanceManual/BPMM/culverts/culverts.htm, accessed on 06/18/19.]
D
Dunes	Sand dune, any accumulation of sand grains shaped into a mound or ridge by the wind under the influence of gravity. Sand dunes are comparable to other forms that appear when a fluid moves over a loose bed, such as subaqueous �dunes� on the beds of rivers and tidal estuaries and sand waves on the continental shelves beneath shallow seas. Dunes are found wherever loose sand is windblown: in deserts, on beaches, and even on some eroded and abandoned farm fields in semiarid regions, such as northwest India and parts of the southwestern United States. Images of Mars returned by the U.S. Mariner 9 and Viking spacecrafts have shown that dunes are widely distributed on that planet both in craters and in a sand sea surrounding the north polar ice cap. [Encyclopedia Britannica. Sand Dunes. Britannica.com, https://www.britannica.com/science/sand-dune, accessed on 06/18/19.]
E
Ecosystem	The complex of living organisms, their physical environment, and all their interrelationships in a particular unit of space. [Encyclopedia Britannica. Ecosystem. Britannica.com, https://www.britannica.com/science/ecosystem, accessed on 06/18/19.]
I
Intertidal Zone	Intertidal zones exist anywhere the ocean meets the land, from steep, rocky ledges to long, sloping sandy beaches and mudflats that can extend for hundreds of meters. Four physical divisions, each with distinct characteristics and ecological differences, divide the intertidal zone. They are the: Spray zone: dampened by ocean spray and high waves and is submerged only during very high tides or severe storms. High intertidal zone: floods during the peaks of daily high tides but remains dry for long stretches between high tides. It is inhabited by hardy sea life that can withstand pounding waves, such as barnacles, marine snails, mussels, limpets, shore crabs, and hermit crabs. Middle intertidal zone: over which the tides ebb and flow twice a day, and which is inhabited by a greater variety of both plants and animals, including sea stars and anemones. Low intertidal zone: virtually always underwater except during the lowest of spring tides. Life is more abundant there because of the protection provided by the water. [NOAA. What is the intertidal zone? National Ocean Service website, https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/intertidal-zone.html, 11/09/18.]
Invasive Species	An alien species whose introduction does or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health. (Executive Order 13112: Section1. Definitions)
L
Living Shoreline	Living shorelines are a green infrastructure technique using native vegetation alone or in combination with offshore sills to stabilize the shoreline. Living shorelines provide a natural alternative to �hard� shoreline stabilization methods like stone sills or bulkheads, and provide numerous benefits including nutrient pollution remediation, essential fish habitat provision, and buffering of shoreline from waves and storms. Living shorelines are known to store carbon (known as carbon sequestration), which keeps carbon out of the atmosphere. Continued use of this approach to coastal resilience will result in increased carbon sequestration and storage, potentially mitigating the effects of climate change. [NOAA. What is a living shoreline? National Ocean Service website, https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/living-shoreline.html, 06/25/18.]
M
Morphology	a branch of biology that deals with the form and structure of animals and plants. [Merriam-Webster. Morphology. www.merriam-webster.com, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/morphology, accessed on 06/18/19.]
R
Resilience	Coastal resilience means building the ability of a community to "bounce back" after hazardous events such as hurricanes, coastal storms, and flooding � rather than simply reacting to impacts. [NOAA. What is resilience? National Ocean Service website, https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/resilience.html, 06/25/18.]
S
Salt Marsh	Salt marshes are coastal wetlands that are flooded and drained by salt water brought in by the tides. They are marshy because the soil may be composed of deep mud and peat. Peat is made of decomposing plant matter that is often several feet thick. Peat is waterlogged, root-filled, and very spongy. Because salt marshes are frequently submerged by the tides and contain a lot of decomposing plant material, oxygen levels in the peat can be extremely low-a condition called hypoxia. Hypoxia is caused by the growth of bacteria which produce the sulfurous rotten-egg smell that is often associated with marshes and mud flats. Salt marshes occur worldwide, particularly in middle to high latitudes. Thriving along protected shorelines, they are a common habitat in estuaries. In the U.S., salt marshes can be found on every coast. Approximately half of the nation's salt marshes are located along the Gulf Coast. These intertidal habitats are essential for healthy fisheries, coastlines, and communities-and they are an integral part of our economy and culture. They also provide essential food, refuge, or nursery habitat for more than 75 percent of fisheries species, including shrimp, blue crab, and many finfish. Salt marshes also protect shorelines from erosion by buffering wave action and trapping sediments. They reduce flooding by slowing and absorbing rainwater and protect water quality by filtering runoff, and by metabolizing excess nutrients. [NOAA. What is a salt marsh? National Ocean Service website, https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/saltmarsh.html, 06/25/18.]
Subsidence	Subsidence-sinking of the ground because of underground material movement-is most often caused by the removal of water, oil, natural gas, or mineral resources out of the ground by pumping, fracking, or mining activities. Subsidence can also be caused by natural events such as earthquakes, soil compaction, glacial isostatic adjustment, erosion, sinkhole formation, and adding water to fine soils deposited by wind (a natural process known as loess deposits). Subsidence can happen over very large areas like whole states or provinces, or very small areas like the corner of your yard. In the Chesapeake Bay area, for example, land subsidence may be caused by a combination of sediment loading (when rivers deposit sediment in an area that then sinks under the additional weight) and sediment compaction after groundwater is removed. [NOAA. What is subsidence? National Ocean Service website, https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/subsidence.html, 06/25/18.]
W
Watershed	It�s a land area that channels rainfall and snowmelt to creeks, streams, and rivers, and eventually to outflow points such as reservoirs, bays, and the ocean. [NOAA. What is a watershed? National Ocean Service website, https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/watershed.html, 06/25/18.]
Wetland	A wetland is an area of land that is saturated with water. There are many different kinds of wetlands and many ways to categorize them. NOAA classifies wetlands into five general types: marine (ocean), estuarine (estuary), riverine (river), lacustrine (lake), and palustrine (marsh). Common names for wetlands include marshes, estuaries, mangroves, mudflats, mires, ponds, fens, swamps, deltas, coral reefs, billabongs, lagoons, shallow seas, bogs, lakes, and floodplains, to name just a few! Often found alongside waterways and in floodplains, wetlands vary widely due to differences in soil, topography, climate, water chemistry, and vegetation. Large wetland areas may also be comprised of several smaller wetland types. Wetland habitats serve essential functions in an ecosystem, including acting as water filters, providing flood and erosion control, and furnishing food and homes for fish and wildlife. They do more than sustain plants and animals in the watershed, however. Many wetlands are not wet year-round because water levels change with the seasons. During periods of excessive rain, wetlands absorb and slow floodwaters, which helps to alleviate property damage and may even save lives. Wetlands also absorb excess nutrients, sediments, and other pollutants before they reach rivers, lakes, and other waterbodies. They are also great spots for fishing, canoeing, hiking, and bird-watching, and are enjoyable outdoor "classrooms" for people of all ages. [NOAA. What is a wetland? National Ocean Service website, https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/wetland.html, 06/25/18.]