Monmouth County Bayshore Coastal Resilience Design Study

In 2012, Hurricane Sandy left numerous NJ communities with storm damage to homes and infrastructure including Naval Weapons Station (NWS) Earle, which incurred approximately $50M in installation damages that not only impacted mission readiness, but also impacted neighboring communities, where the majority of the installations’ military and civilian employee population resides. It is expected that NWS Earle and its surrounding communities may experience increased frequent flooding from tidal waters and storm surge, adversely affecting ecosystems and presenting challenges to installation resilience and readiness. In response to these past occurrences and the threat of future related coastal hazards, Monmouth County, in cooperation with NWS Earle and the 13 municipalities that surround it, published a Joint Land Use Study in 2017, which defined several goals related to adapting to sea level rise and improving resiliency from future storm events. In 2019, the cooperative published the Raritan/Sandy Hook Bay Coastal Resilience Planning Study (Bayshore Study) which identified potential coastal resilience projects within the region that could improve sustainability and resiliency from current and future coastal hazards and sea level rise.

In 2021, Monmouth County commissioned Princeton Hydro to advance the goals of the Bayshore Study through the Bayshore Coastal Resilience Design Study. The goal of this study is to develop conceptual coastal resilience designs for two of the Bayshore Study projects located on coastal wetlands along Whale Creek in Aberdeen Township and Flat Creek in Union Beach Borough. We conducted site assessments that included desktop investigation, bio-benchmarks, and hydrologic monitoring; completed hydrodynamic modeling to assess the impacts of storms and sea level rise; and developed conceptual restoration designs for both sites. Restoration strategies included removal of invasive species, planting of native species, enhancement of hydrology, and fostering marsh migration. Conceptual designs were presented to a Technical Advisory Committee to solicit feedback for further project development.

This project provided an opportunity to work closely with Monmouth County on an effort to address the threat of future coastal hazards through marsh restoration. The project resulted in the development of conceptual designs for restoration of the tidal marsh ecosystems at Whale Creek and Flat Creek as well as a detailed study report to support those designs.