QUANTIFYING COASTAL DEVELOPMENT AND CORRESPONDING BEACH PROFILE CHANGES

Human development, or developed areas, have been widely defined in coastal geomorphology literature. Often these descriptions are qualitative and non-reproducible. This paper describes a method for quantitative measurements of human development and land cover change on two barrier islands (Santa Rosa Island and St. George Island) in the Florida Panhandle. Land cover variables of percent buildings, paved surfaces, sand and vegetation were calculated from 1:1200 aerial photographs using a reach-block methodology. The land cover variables are compared to beach profile changes in decadal time slices from the 1970s to the 1990s. Results of this study show how these two islands have two very distinct types of human development patterns and some concurrent beach profile associations.