Storms impacts on a sandy beach including seasonal recovery: alongshore variability and management influences
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Article de revue
Este ítem está publicado en
Revue Paralia. 2018-01-01, vol. 11, p. n02.1-n02.16
Resumen en inglés
Despite a global context of shoreline retreat, coastal areas and in particular sandy coasts 
are increasingly attractive. To handle the problem of coastline retreat different 
management strategies are deployed and among ...Leer más >
Despite a global context of shoreline retreat, coastal areas and in particular sandy coasts 
are increasingly attractive. To handle the problem of coastline retreat different 
management strategies are deployed and among them soft methods as windbreakers or 
hard ones as seawalls. But all those methods are known to interfere in the natural 
evolution of the beach/dune systems at different timescales. To underline potential 
influences of management strategies on erosion and recovery periods, high frequency 
DGPS surveys coupled with video images are recorded at a workshop-site exhibiting 
various management strategies, Biscarrosse beach (SW of France) from November 2015 
until September 2016. Results for the winter 2016 highlight a global erosion of the 
beach associated to a dune foot retreat and an alongshore variability in the beach 
response to events. The same patterns can be observed during the seasonal recovery 
period (April to August), in particular a lag in the berm reconstruction in front of the 
seawall. The LVI (Longshore Variation Index) reflects possible sediment processes 
taking place between the different sections of the beach: while recovery seems to be 
dominated by cross-shore exchanges in the unmanaged section, longshore sediment 
processes seem to be the origin of the recovery in the managed section.  This variability 
could be linked to a permanent rip current visible (98% of observation) in front of the 
seawall that could cause an offshore sediment export explaining both the lag in term of 
recovery timescale and the different sediment processes involved during the recovery 
period. During the erosion season, sediment exchanges between the beach and the dune 
are limited due to the presence of seawalls and beach erosion and dune retreat in the two 
ends on the wall accelerated.< Leer menos
Palabras clave en inglés
Coastal management
Alongshore variability
Sandy beach
Shoreline variations
Seasonal recovery
Rip currents
Longshore sediment transport
Centros de investigación