Abstract
Understanding the costal morphology and topography in the Pacific region is critical for coastal management and to the implementation of climate change adaptation. However, little is known about reef beach morphology on the reef coast of Pacific islands. The Changing Waves and Coast in the Pacific (WACOP) project is collecting baseline information and using the latest research tools to assess the wave climate and its variability to improve the understanding of reef hydrodynamics and morphology as well as predict how these will change with the climate. The project aim is to better understand coastal erosion and inundation and to assess the potential for wave energy harvesting.
The data presented in this document is the result of an intensive survey of topography and morphology of Maui Bay. The data shows how the beach perched on a mid-holocene beachrock is highly stable and document the detailed topography of the reef flat fronting Maui Bay on the Coral Coast. The processing of the data has created a high resolution topography/bathymetry model of Maui Bay suitable for high resolution numerical modelling.
The data presented here is the baseline of a more in-depth analysis of the hydrodynamics of Maui Bay (Bosserelle et al. 2015) and is likely to support further findings on reef hydrodynamics.