PROBLEM
The Corps is charged with maintaining safe, navigable tidal inlets while minimizing adverse effects to adjacent property and the environment. Balancing navigable channels with healthy beaches and ecosystems can be a challenge, particularly on a continual, up-to-date basis when the positions of channels and shoals are dynamic and the volume of infilling sediment is costly to quantify on a regular basis.
SOLUTION
Corps researchers designed RIOS to analyze metrics for engineering support along shorelines, harbor entrances and tidal inlets over extended, hourly time periods. RIOS can infer bedform migration, channel infilling, wave angle and bathymetry effectively at remote locations. These lowcost, near real-time measurements of waves, channel positions and depths improve safety at navigable coastal inlets.
IMPACT
Corps dredging and placement strategies are optimized by rapid, cost-effective measures that address shoal migration and encroachment into navigation channels. RIOS data can facilitate understanding of inlet dynamics to focus and potentially defer dredging efforts. RIOS observations also guide sediment placement design by monitoring the rate and direction of sediment movement after placement. 22
