TIME SERIES AND SPACE-TIME CUBE ANALYSES ON NORTH CAROLINA OUTER BANKS

The North Carolina Outer Banks are a highly dynamic environment that experience changes in geomorphology due to both natural and anthropogenic processes. As LiDAR surveys have been collected every 1 to 2 years over the past 15 years, time series and space-time cube analyses have been applied to areas along the NC Outer Banks to model terrain evolution of barrier islands over the past decade. Time series analyses model spatial evolution of terrain, while space-time cube models add a temporal variable in order to show continuous evolution of elevation, slope, or curvature contours as a function of space and time, f(x,y,t)=z. The purpose of this research is use time series analysis to help identify areas vulnerable to erosion by applying per cell statistical analyses a series of consecutive digital elevation models (DEMs) to find how much change has occurred in specific areas along the Outer Banks. Also, the results from the space-time cube analyses will be explored to find if patterns in elevation isosurfaces, slope isoclines, and curvature can be used to differentiate between natural and anthropogenic processes that affect the NC Outer Banks, and these patterns will ultimately be used to identify unstable areas with highly dynamic terrain that are vulnerable to storm and long term erosion impacts.