Beach management and design

A project investigating beach behaviour to support beach management and the design of coastal defence structures on shingle beaches.

From:
Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Research and Development Programme and Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
Published
11 February 2021
Category:
Environmental management and sustainability
Topics:
Coast, Coastal erosion, Deterioration, Hydrology, Natural capital, Natural flood management, Non-stationarity, Sea level rise, Understanding physical processes
Project status:
Completed
Project code:
FD0705
Date of completion:
31 March 1999

Documents

Shingle beach transport project - summary (126KB) PDF

Beach management and design - final report (2 MB) WORD

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Details

Managing shorelines effectively depends on understanding the way beaches change shape, and both how sediment moves along the shore and across the shore over time. Coarse-grained beaches are of equal importance around the UK as sand beaches, but we did not know as much about how these beaches respond to change.

Approach

This project developed improved techniques for predicting beach transport and long-term changes in beach shape. This is where coarse-grained sediment makes up a significant proportion of the beach material. It investigates beach behaviour to support beach management and the design of coastal defence structures on shingle beaches. It also gives guidance on predicting how fast natural and man-made coastal features will recede through lateral erosion of near-vertical surfaces.

The project included:

  • compiling an extensive database of field measurements
  • comparing the existing equations used in numerical prediction models
  • developing a new conceptual longshore transport model
  • steps towards developing a physics based cross-shore model - including the effects of a permeable beach on wave run-up and an improved representation of bottom friction
  • new guidance on the use of field equipment - including the use of GIS (Geographic Management System) to form digital ground models for use in transport calculations
  • developing guidance on analysing and predicting long term/large scale shoreline change

This project ran from 1996 to 1999 at a cost of £515,000.

Updates to this page

Published 11 February 2021
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