It is a well known phenomenon that sand shifts: from the sand flowing in an hourglass to eroding beaches, time, gravity and friction make it difficult to predict how anything composed of sand will change over time.
However, understanding how dunes–the great, sandy, protectors of the coast–might change in response to different conditions is a matter of importance to coastal communities around the world. Dunes provide a natural buffer from storms and important habitat to a variety of species.
In the pasts, scientists relied on high cost LiDAR surveys in order to assess how dunes had changed in response to storms. Recently however, researchers Saeid Nezhad, Matt Bilskie and Aditya Gupta at the University of Georgia have developed a new way to assess changes, this time using high-resolution UAV photogrammetry.
To test out their new method, they applied it to a dune on Jekyll Island in Georgia, where they ran 8 surveys between 2022 and 2025. The surveys captured changes throughout 6 storms: Hurricanes Ian, Nicole, Idalia, Helene, and Milton and Tropical Storm Debby.
The researchers found that the storms impacted the dunes in fairly predictable ways, causing seaward face scarping and profile lowering. During recovery, widening and gains in growth occurred at the same time–and dunes that had flatter profiles accumulated sand more efficiently.
The hope for this study? That they’ve created a tool that can be reused by other researchers and practitioners to diagnose which dunes have yet to recover from storms, which dunes are recovering well, and when exactly dunes begin the recovery process.