Analysis of Beach Erosion Around Large-Scale Coastal Structures

The coast of Ibaraki Prefecture, facing the Pacific Ocean, has an alongshore stretch of 181 km. On this coast many structures associated with harbors have been constructed since early 1960s. Since then 25 years have passed, and some notable beach changes due to the influence of the construction of the coastal structures have been observed. This study aims to examine the actual situation of the beach change around large-scale structures and the damages of the coastal structures selecting the coast of Ibaraki Prefecture as the study area. For the purpose aerial photographs were taken along the coast, and the topographic surveys and measurements of median diameter of beach-face materials were made. Data of the soundings having been conducted once a year since 1975 around Oharai Port and Hazaki Fishery Harbor were collected in order to study the beach changes around the large-scale coastal structures. For the analysis of these data the comparison of the shoreline changes were performed by using four sets of aerial photographs since 1947 to the present. Moreover, temporal and spatial changes of the beach topography were investigated by the sounding data.