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Eric Bird · Nick Lewis

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Beach Renourishment

Eric BirdDepartment of Geography University of Melbourne Melbourne, VIC Australia

Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London

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ISSN 2191-5369 ISSN 2191-5377 (electronic)ISBN 978-3-319-09727-5 ISBN 978-3-319-09728-2 (eBook)DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-09728-2

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014950362

Nick LewisRoyal HaskoningDHV Sydney, NSW Australia

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During the past century many of the world’s beaches have been depleted by ero-sion. Some beaches, particularly in the United States, Western Europe and Australia, have been renourished by dumping sand or gravel on the shore—the aim being to restore and maintain a beach that will protect the coast from ero-sion by storm damage and prevent flooding of the hinterland, while providing an improved area for seaside recreation and habitat for wildlife.

Some of the first documented Beach Renourishment projects were undertaken in the early 1900s on the east coast of the United States. Several countries have since renourished beaches, particularly during the past few decades. These are reviewed, and experience from various beach renourishment projects from around the world used to discuss principles and practices.

Beach Renourishment will be most effective when those concerned under-stand how the beach is changing and why. Accordingly, sources of beach sedi-ment and the causes and typical responses to beach erosion are discussed. Beach Renourishment Principles dealt with include the need for preliminary investiga-tions, sources of sediment for beach renourishment, methods of beach renourish-ment, design considerations, techniques for monitoring changes, assessment of performance and modelling and planning considerations.

The text provides researchers, students, engineers, planners and managers with an overview of key guiding principles of beach renourishment. The coverage is necessarily selective and somewhat personal to the authors’ respective geographi-cal backgrounds.

A list of references provide a guide to more detailed information, including many technical guides and manuals, along with further details on the specific examples used.

Eric Bird is a Principal Fellow in the Department of Geography, University of Melbourne and the author of several books including Beach Management (1996), Coastal Geomorphology: An Introduction (1999, 2008), Submerging Coasts (1993) and Encyclopedia of the World’s Coastal Landforms (2010).

Preface

Prefacevi

Nick Lewis is a Senior Scientist and consultant at Royal HaskoningDHV with a background in environmental management and engineering. With a focus on the practical application of geomorphology, Nick’s international experience has been associated with port and harbour development, environmental management and restoration, coastal and flood risk management, offshore resources, transport infra-structure and land development.

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1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

2 Causes of Beach Erosion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72.1 Reduction in Sediment Supply from Eroding Cliffs . . . . . . . . . . . . 92.2 Reduction of Fluvial Sediment Supply to the Coast . . . . . . . . . . . . 112.3 Reduction of Sediment Supply from the Sea Floor . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122.4 Reduction of Sand Supply from Inland Dunes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142.5 Submergence and Increased Wave Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162.6 Increased Wave Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172.7 Losses of Beach Sediment Alongshore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172.8 A Change in the Angle of Incidence of Waves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202.9 Interception of Longshore Drift by Breakwaters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212.10 Increased Losses of Beach Sediment to the Backshore . . . . . . . . . . 212.11 Beach Weathering, Including Attrition of Beach Sediment . . . . . . . 222.12 A Rise in the Beach Water Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232.13 Removal of Beach Sediment by Runoff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232.14 Increased Scour by Wave Reflection from an Artificial Structure . . . 242.15 Extraction of Sand and Shingle from the Beach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

3 Responses to Beach Erosion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293.1 Structural Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293.2 Non-structural Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

4 Beach Renourishment Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414.1 The Need for Preliminary Investigations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414.2 Sources of Sediment for Beach Renourishment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

4.2.1 Sediment from Land Quarries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454.2.2 Sediment from Other Beaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Contents

Contentsviii

4.2.3 Sediment from Harbours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464.2.4 Sediment from Coastal Lagoons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474.2.5 Sediment from River Channels and Alluvial Plains . . . . . . 474.2.6 Sediment from Tidal Inlets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484.2.7 Sediment from the Sea Floor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484.2.8 Sediment from Distant Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514.2.9 Sediment from Mining Waste. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524.2.10 Artificial Sediment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

4.3 Methods of Beach Renourishment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544.3.1 Direct Placement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554.3.2 Emplacement by Longshore Drift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 614.3.3 Bypassing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 654.3.4 Recycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 664.3.5 Use of Shoreward Drift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 684.3.6 Backpassing and Beach Re-shaping. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 704.3.7 Overfill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 724.3.8 Shore Profile Renourishment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 724.3.9 Part-Renourishments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 744.3.10 Use of Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

4.4 Design Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 794.4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 794.4.2 Grain Size and Grading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 794.4.3 Cross-Shore Profile and Determination of Volume . . . . . . 824.4.4 Beach Configuration and Orientation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

4.5 Monitoring Changes After Beach Renourishment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 844.6 Assessment of Beach Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 874.7 Modelling of Beach Renourishment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

5 Beach Renourishment for Coast Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

6 Planning Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1076.1 Environmental Impacts of Beach Renourishment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

6.1.1 Source Impacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1096.1.2 Impacts During Transportation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1106.1.3 Impacts of Beach Emplacement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

6.2 Costs and Benefits of Beach Renourishment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1136.3 Response of Renourished Beaches to Climate Change

and a Rising Sea Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

7 Review of International Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1237.1 United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1237.2 Australia and New Zealand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Contents ix

7.3 Mainland Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1277.4 United Kingdom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1297.5 Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1297.6 Asia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1307.7 Central and South America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1327.8 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

8 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137