Twenty-four years of satellite and aircraft imagery were used to calculate shoreline movement time series for eleven Virginia barrier islands. Shoreline movement of the ocean side of islands was determined along across-shelf transects at 300 m spacing for each island. After subtracting offsets and removing long-term data trends, the resulting time series were correlated with sea level, wave height, and teleconnection indices including the Arctic Oscillation (AO), North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), Multivariate ENSO Index (MEI), and Oceanic Niño Index (ONI). These correlations allow the grouping of the islands by the effects of environmental factors both directly and associated with environmental events that are associated with teleconnection indices. Trends of indices and environmental factors indicate increasing negative trends with respect to the shoreline changes for these islands. Sea level has increased over the 24-year study period. Wave height has also increased. Both the AO and NAO have increasing negative trends, which correlate with higher Mid-Atlantic Bight high wave events.

Mr. Haluska received a BS in Chemistry from Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh, NY in 1970, and a MS in Oceanography from ODU in 1975. He is currently a Doctoral Candidate in Oceanography with CCPO at ODU. Mr. Haluska is a retired Civil Service employee having worked for the Norfolk District, Army Corps of Engineers as an Oceanographer, the Norfolk Naval Shipyard as a Chemist, the Atlantic Division, Naval Facilities Engineering Command as an Environmental Protection Specialist, and with the Commander, Operational Test and Evaluation Force as a Scientist. His current research interest is using GIS-derived data to describe and study environmental issues.

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