Annual South Carolina Beach Profiles

The BERM program has collected approximately 500 beach profiles on public beaches throughout the state of South Carolina for over a decade, providing an invaluable dataset to analyze beach and nearshore change. Profiles are available from Daufuskie Island at the SC/GA border to Waites Island at the SC/NC border. The profile data is used by OCRM to write the annual State of the Beaches Report for the state of South Carolina. Data collection methods have advanced from a theodolite and cart with a 30’ boom to a Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) GPS system with motion compensation instrumentation and a single beam fathometer for nearshore surveys. Support has been provided by the S.C. Office of Coastal Resources Management (OCRM), S.C. Sea Grant, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Geological Survey, Coastal Carolina University, and local towns and municipalities.

The profiles are available at gis.coastal.edu in an on-line profile management database directed by M. Scott Harris (CCU) with support provided by the Army Corps of Engineers, OCRM, SC Sea Grant, USGS and Coastal Carolina University. The database features graphical representations of profiles over time, several methods to calculate volume change, mapping tools to locate profiles, and recent photographs at each profile where available.

Click here to see a case study from Seabrook Island.

BERM Collaborators