About ALBERT

Automated Littoral Bay Equilibrium Rendering Tool

The premier coastal engineering analysis tool for the Chesapeake Bay and its contributing tributaries.

ALBERT exists to make the static-equilibrium bay beach concept accessible to coastal engineers, designers, and stewards of the shoreline. A static-equilibrium embayment is a stable, naturally curved beach that forms in the shadow of a headland — its planform settles into balance with the prevailing wave climate so that net longshore sediment transport approaches zero.

By rendering that equilibrium planform from just two control points, ALBERT helps you design living shorelines that work with the coast rather than against it.

In Dedication

Portrait of Albert McCullough

Albert McCullough, PE, PWS

This application is dedicated to Albert McCullough, a pioneer in coastal engineering and shoreline restoration who applied the static-equilibrium methodology to create stable, dynamic living shorelines throughout the Chesapeake Bay and its surrounding watersheds.

Methodology

ALBERT's geometry is built on the parabolic bay shape equation, crediting the methodology to Hsu & Evans (1989). Every analysis in the tool is transcribed from a published design reference — the same sources cited in the Pro engineering report:

  • Hsu & Evans (1989); Hsu et al. (2021)

    The parabolic bay shape equation — the static-equilibrium embayment planform every shoreline in the tool is rendered from.

    Hsu, Lee, Klein, González & Medina — "Headland-Bay Beaches: Static Equilibrium Concept for Shoreline Management" (World Scientific, 2021).

  • Smith (1991)

    Wind-wave generation on restricted fetches — the growth relations behind the Pro wave generation analysis.

    Smith, J.M. (1991). "Wind-Wave Generation on Restricted Fetches." Miscellaneous Paper CERC-91-2, U.S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station, Coastal Engineering Research Center, Vicksburg, MS.

  • Shore Protection Manual (1984)

    Structure sizing — Hudson armor stone, crest width and layer thickness, wave runup, and toe protection for the headland breakwater section.

    U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (1984). "Shore Protection Manual," 4th ed., Vol. II. U.S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station, Coastal Engineering Research Center, Vicksburg, MS. (Eqs. 7-116, 7-120, 7-121, 7-125; Tables 7-8, 7-13; Figures 7-20, 7-116, 7-120.)

  • Blaauw et al. (1984); USACE (2011)

    Vessel-wake analysis — the maximum secondary wave height equation with the revised coefficients.

    U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah District (2011). "Reanalysis of Ship Forces at the Shoreline, Savannah Harbor Expansion Project." (Blaauw et al. 1984 wake equation with revised Eqs. 12 and 15.)

  • UMCES (2023)

    Sea-level-rise projections — the SLR allowance in the Pro structure-sizing crest-elevation stack-up.

    Boesch, D.F., et al. (2023). "Sea-Level Rise Projections for Maryland 2023." University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Cambridge, MD. (Appendix 1, Baltimore.)

  • NOAA NDBC

    Full-record wind climatology — the observed station winds behind the wind/wave rose and the governing wave condition.

    NOAA National Data Buoy Center, historical standard meteorological archives (station wind records).