Michelle E. Harris

University of South Carolina | USC · Department of Geography

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Ocean Acidification Program (OAP) and NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) Competitive Research Program (CRP) are working to better understand interactions between stressors such as harmful algal blooms (HABs) and coastal and ocean acidification (OA). Both HABs and OA are...

Coastal populations face an ever-growing threat as natural hazards increase in frequency and magnitude. In South Carolina, king tides (abnormally high tides) responsible for coastal flooding have increased by 126% between 2014 and 2019. King tides present an evolving threat as sea levels rise, yet the implications for coastal dune response have not...

In many places along the U.S. East and Gulf of Mexico coasts, barrier islands are the first line of defense against extreme weather events threatening our coastlines. The trademark of these barrier islands are sand dunes that are intricately bound, from a sedimentary perspective, to the beach. Coastal storms, such as Hurricanes Matthew (2016), Irma...

Over one-third of the Earth’s population resides or works within 200 km of the coast. The increasing threat of coastal hazards with predicted climate change will impact many global citizens. Coastal dune systems serve as a natural first line of defense against rising sea levels and coastal storms. This study investigated the volumetric changes of t...

The coastal zone is morphologically dynamic and a range of engineering practices are used to stabilize it. The dune system serves as the first line of defense against storms and rising sea levels. Sand fences on dunes are one popular and economical restorative engineering alternative. This study evaluates the geomorphic response of dunes with and w...

As population density increases in coastal counties, shoreline stabilization efforts continue to gain momentum to protect infrastructure. Although protection techniques vary from ‘soft’ to ‘hard’ engineering, this paper focuses on a ‘hybrid’ technique utilizing geotubes as artificial dune cores. Previous literature presents conflicting results on t...