Hilton Head Island

• LIDAR Elevation Maps
• Beach Management History
• Hilton Head Island Renourishment History

LIDAR Elevation Maps

Below is a false color image showing a stretch of beach that narrows considerably in front of the Hyatt Hotel on Hilton Head Island. The term "false color" simply means that the image is not a photograph, and that you should use the color bar on the image to interpret what the colors mean. A renourishment project was occurring on Hilton Head while this data was being collected. You can make a similar image using the BeachMapper software application provided on the second volume of this CD-ROM set. For more information about the BeachMapper Application, click here.

Portable Document Format (PDF) maps have been created to show LIDAR data for South Carolina's beaches and islands. PDF maps will allow you to zoom in on the data and print the maps at better resolution. However, because of the intense density of the data, the PDF files will not draw properly from your browser. If you have Adobe Acrobat Reader® software installed on your computer, you can view the maps by navigating to the pdf/islands directory on this CD-ROM and double click on a file. A directory of maps is available in the readme.txt file. Adobe Acrobat Reader software has been provided on this CD-ROM.

To learn more about PDF documents and installing the software need to view them, click here.

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Beach Management History for Hilton Head Island

Hilton Head Island is located in Beaufort County and lies between Calibogue Sound to the southwest and Port Royal Sound to the northeast. At 11.5 miles long and 6.8 miles wide, Hilton Head is one of South Carolina's largest barrier islands. The part of the island southwest of Folly Creek is a Pleistocene beach-ridge barrier island while northeast of the creek is a younger transgressive landform. The northern half of the shoreline shows long-term accretion along the Atlantic side and long-term erosion of -6 feet per year along Port Royal Sound. Long-term shoreline change at the southern end of Hilton Head is generally accretional at a rate of +2 to +5 feet per year - however, the proximity of Calibogue Sound makes this area inherently unstable.

In 1990 a 6.6-mile section of the beach was renourished with close to 2.5 million cubic yards (cy) of sand. Two offshore sites, Gaskin Bank and Joiner Bank, served as sediment sources for the project. A pipeline dredge was set up to pump sediment onto the beach. Another renourishment project was just completed in 1997.

Prior to the 1950s the island was used primarily for timbering and hunting. Once the bridge to the mainland was constructed in 1956, development of the island began. Charles Fraser was instrumental in the development plan of Hilton Head with the design of Sea Pines Plantation. The population grew from 300 residents in 1950 to over 26,000 in 1994.

Beach profile surveys are conducted in the spring and fall at approximately 400 monitoring stations throughout the State of South Carolina. Various agencies participate in the beach profile collection, including The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC) Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management (OCRM), Coastal Carolina University, and the College of Charleston. The results of the surveys provide a snapshot of the beach face. Over time, these surveys can be compiled to determine if and how the profile of the beach is changing. Below is a map of the stations and a sample of the profiles that can be extracted from the data. The beach profile data compiled by OCRM is provided on the second volume of this CD-ROM set.

*South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management

For more information about South Carolina beach profiles see: South Carolina's Annual State of the Beaches Report, April 1998, SCDHEC OCRM, 1362 McMillian Ave. Suite 400, Charleston, SC 29405.

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Hilton Head Island Renourishment History