Impact of nourishments on nearshore currents and swimmer safety on the Dutch coast

Assessing swimmer safety along the Dutch coast entails more than only assessing the risk of rip currents. Seven criteria have been formulated to make a comprehensive assessment of swimmer safety along the Dutch coast. These are based on interviews with lifeguards, rescue report statistics and detailed lagrangian measurements of the current...

Beach scarp evolution and prediction

Five years of beach topography data were examined to map the spatio-temporal patterns in beach scarp existence. Data of the Sand Engine were used, a mega scale nourishment implemented in 2011 at the Dutch coast. Topographic data were automatically and manually analyzed to recognize scarps in the dataset. Moments of destruction and persistence of...

Integrated modelling of the morphological evolution of the sand engine mega-nourishment

This study presents some recent developments in coastal morphological modeling focusing on flexible meshes, flexible coupling between models operating at different time scales, and a recently developed morphodynamic model for the intertidal and dry beach. This integrated modeling approach is applied to the Sand Engine mega nourishment in The...

Observed Changes of a Mega Feeder Nourishment in a Coastal Cell: Five Years of Sand Engine Morphodynamics

Recently, mega feeder nourishments have been proposed as a new strategy to nourish sediment-starving beaches. This strategy involves the placement of a large, concentrated sediment volume at a single location along the coast. Wind, waves and currents act as the natural agents to spread the sediment alongshore over the course of years to decades....

Subaqueous and Subaerial Beach Changes after Implementation of a Mega Nourishment in Front of a Sea Dike

Sandy nourishments can provide additional sediment to the coastal system to maintain its recreational or safety function under rising sea levels. These nourishments can be implemented at sandy beach systems, but can also be used to reinforce gray coastal infrastructure (e.g., dams, dikes, seawalls). The Hondsbossche Dunes project is a combined...

Predicting marine and aeolian contributions to the Sand Engine's evolution using coupled modelling

Quantitative predictions of marine and aeolian sediment transport in the nearshore–beach–dune system are important for designing Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) in coastal environments. To quantify the impact of the marine-aeolian interactions on shaping NBS, we present a framework coupling three existing process-based models: Delft3D Flexible...

Field measurements on spatial variations in aeolian sediment availability at the Sand Motor mega nourishment

Spatial variations in aeolian sediment transport were measured at the Sand Motor mega nourishment in The Netherlands during a six week field campaign in the fall of 2014. A consistent significant increase in sediment transport in downwind direction (positive gradient) was measured over the intertidal beach area, indicating that the intertidal...

Aeolian sediment supply at a mega nourishment

Mega nourishments are intended to enhance growth and resilience of coastal dunes on medium to long time scales by stimulation of natural sediment transport processes. The growth and resilience of coastal dunes largely depends on the presence of a continuous supply of aeolian sediment. A recent example of a mega nourishment is the 21 Mm<sup>3<...

Semi-Automated Monitoring of a Mega-Scale Beach Nourishment Using High-Resolution TerraSAR-X Satellite Data

This paper presents a semi-automated approach to detecting coastal shoreline change with high spatial- and temporal-resolution using X-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data. The method was applied at the Sand Motor, a “mega-scale” beach nourishment project in the Netherlands. Natural processes, like waves, wind, and tides, gradually...

The application of a radar-based depth inversion method to monitor near-shore nourishments on an open sandy coast and an ebb-tidal delta

Coastal management in the Netherlands has the aim to defend coastal zones by preventing flooding and mitigating erosion. To that end, large-scale nourishments are placed in the nearshore, which are supposed to dynamically preserve the coastal zone over a timescale of years. To assess their effectiveness, these nourishments are monitored over...

Simulating spatiotemporal aeolian sediment supply at a mega nourishment

Mega nourishments are a novel approach to stimulating coastal safety and resilience. Mega nourishments are intended to spread along the coast on a decadal time scale by natural sediment transport processes with a minimum of intrusion into the natural coastal system. The supratidal morphodynamic behaviour of mega nourishments is not well...