Queen’s Pond study area (transects 1 – 139) covers the southern section of Polihale Beach on the west coast of Kauaʻi. The beach at Queen’s Pond is composed of carbonate sand backed by vegetated dunes and sugarcane fields. The study area is exposed to swell from the north and northwest during winter and spring months. As a result, the area experiences large seasonal fluctuations of the shoreline evidenced by an average difference in summer (1987) and winter (1988) shoreline positions of approximately 100 ft. Previous studies* do not analyze Queen’s Pond study area.
Queen’s Pond is a small basin along the shoreline (transects 95 – 106) in the northern section of the area. The area is bounded to the south by a complex of emerged shore-parallel beachrock. The average shoreline change rate for this study area is erosional at an average rate of -0.5 ft/yr. The northern portion of the study area (transects 70 – 139) is experiencing erosion with an average shoreline change rate of -0.5 ft/yr while the southern portion (transects 1 – 69) is eroding with an average shoreline change rate of -0.6 ft/yr. Polihale State Park transects 80 – 272) includes the northern half of Queen’s Pond study area. The average shoreline change for Polihale State Park is experiencing erosion with an average shoreline change rate of -0.3 ft/yr.
*Makai Ocean Engineering and Sea Engineering, 1991 Aerial Photograph Analysis of Coastal Erosion on the Islands of Kauai, Molokai, Lanai, Maui, and Hawaii. State
Last updated: July 2021
Directions: To view a larger image of the photo, click on the image. To download the georeferenced TIFF version of the photo, click on the name
