Postnourishment Evolution of Beach Profiles in a Low-Energy Sandy Beach with a Submerged Berm
Publication: Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal, and Ocean Engineering
Volume 143, Issue 4
Abstract
Submerged berms are an increasingly used coastal defense structure for beach nourishment because of their eco-friendly nature. A beach-nourishment project that included sand placement on the beach and in the nearshore area as a submerged berm was carried out in the winter of 2010 on West Beach in Qinhuangdao, China. West Beach is a low-energy beach characterized by small wave heights, a small tidal range, and low tidal-flow velocities. An analysis of the postnourishment beach profile evolution was conducted based on beach profile surveys from 2011 to 2014. The analysis showed that the most active parts of the profiles were the berm and the submerged berm, whereas the remaining parts of the profiles remained relatively stable. The cross-shore profiles of the submerged berm evolved significantly from roughly symmetrical shapes to asymmetrical shapes, which can be explained by applying the concept of equilibrium wave-energy dissipation per unit of water to a low-energy beach with a submerged berm. Empirical orthogonal function analysis was conducted on the beach profile surveys, which confirmed the features of the background-berms pattern gained from the evolution analysis. The first three eigenfunctions corresponded to the mean beach profile, the volume changes of the berm and the submerged berm, and the change in the submerged berm from roughly symmetrical to asymmetrical in shape, respectively. Finally, a new equilibrium beach profile (EBP) form was developed to represent low-energy sandy beaches with submerged berms. The findings in this paper contribute to the understanding of cross-shore beach morphodynamics and can provide a reference for beach nourishment under similar conditions.
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Acknowledgments
The authors sincerely appreciate the support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants 51309092 and 51379072), the Natural Science Fund for Colleges and Universities in Jiangsu Province (Grant BK20130833), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant 2015B16014).
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Published In
Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal, and Ocean Engineering
Volume 143 • Issue 4 • July 2017
Copyright
© 2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 10, 2016
Accepted: Nov 8, 2016
Published online: Feb 16, 2017
Published in print: Jul 1, 2017
Discussion open until: Jul 16, 2017
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