Globally, there is a growing societal need for multifunctional coastal climate adaptation of sandy shores in the coming decades. Sand nourishment strategies are increasingly regarded as promising nature-based approaches to adaptation. They may increase flood safety and mitigate coastal erosion while enhancing recreational and ecological functioning. However, their multifunctional potential has not yet been assessed under diverse climate impacts at decadal scales. This study analysed the effects of beach, shoreface and mega-nourishment strategies on the physical capacity of sandy shores to supply coastal multifunctionality, using a systems-based approach. Through a structured literature review, we identified eight indicators for recreational (2 indicators), ecological (3) and flood safety (3) functions. We integrated these indicators into a process-based sand distribution model for dissipative coastal profiles. We simulated indicator states as the coastal profile responded to the nourishment strategies under five sea-level rise scenarios and three erosion rates. Next, we calculated the extent to which the physical capacity for coastal functions and multifunctionality were supplied over six decades. Our results indicate that all three nourishment strategies can highly supply the capacity for coastal multifunctionality, although the drivers of this potential differed per strategy. These findings imply that sand nourishment strategies are viable approaches for multifunctional coastal climate adaptation in the coming decades. However, they require prioritising specific coastal features and functions. Although sand nourishment strategies remain high-impact interventions, they also allow for intentionally creating coastal landscapes. These landscapes may not only provide flood protection but also enhance the specific environmental and societal functions valued in dissipative sandy shores. Prioritising among these functions requires explicit political choices.

Projections of high rates of sea level rise have stimulated proposals for adaptation strategies with increasingly high nourishment volumes along sandy beaches. An underlying assumption is that coastal profiles respond rapidly to nourishments by redistributing sediments towards a (new) equilibrium shape. However, this perception may not be valid when high volumes of nourishment are applied, as the profile shape may then undergo significant deformation. Current state-of-the-art modelling techniques often concentrate on a single spatio-temporal scale, either lacking the necessary temporal horizon or failing to provide the required level of cross-shore detail. This article introduces Crocodile, a diffusion based cross-shore model designed to bridge the gap between short- and long-term nourishment modelling. The model simulates the effects of nourishment strategies on coastal volume, coastline position and beach width over a decadal timeframe. It incorporates different elements which compute cross-shore diffusion, sediment exchange with the dune and longshore sediment losses. To test the model performance, a series of idealized nourishment scenarios are examined, along with three case studies along the Dutch coast with different nourishment strategies over the past few decades. The modelled coastal volume, shoreline position and beach width strongly resemble the observations with only a 12% overestimation in profile volume and 13% underestimation in beach width. Averaged over selected periods of nourishment, trends and trend reversals between different strategies are well replicated with slight overestimation for coastal volume trends by 1.5m³/m/yr(10%), while beach width trends are underestimated by 0.2m/yr (15%). Given that the added nourishment volumes are typically in the order of 100m³/m, these model errors are considered sufficiently low to conclude that Crocodile effectively simulates variations in coastal volume, coastline position and beach width over a decadal timeframe in response to different nourishment strategies. Therefore, Crocodile can facilitate the evaluation of future nourishment strategies.

Accelerated sea level rise prompts the upscaling of nourishment strategies, either through larger individual nourishment volumes or increased frequency of implementation. In such strategies, the nourished sand may lack time to effectively redistribute in the designated timeframe, leading to significant deformation of the profile over multiple nourishment cycles. This study quantifies subsequent effects, focusing on profile steepening, nourishment lifetimes, and the feasibility of operational objectives. We simulated two common nourishment strategies at a Dutch case study location using the cross-shore morphological model Crocodile over a 50-year timespan under sea level rise rates of 2–32 mm/year. The choice of strategy led to a variation of up to 75% in the total amount of sand used. Our results show increasing profile deformation with nourishment volume applied and duration of the nourishment strategy, with sand accumulating in the nourished section and little dissipation to the lower shoreface. The consequent profile steepening leads to reduced nourishment lifetimes by up to 30%. Additionally, under high sea level rise rates, more erosive coasts experience a reduction in nourishment lifetimes to annual intervals, while less erosive areas require up to four times more sand than currently needed. These findings illustrate key dilemmas in the formulation of future nourishment strategies and highlight the importance of optimizing these strategies to account for sea level rise.

Increased climate impacts threaten coastal functions globally, highlighting the need for multifunctional coastal climate adaptation. Sand nourishment can adapt sandy coasts to sea level rise, mitigate erosion, increase flood safety, enhance ecological habitats and expand recreational space. Therefore, sand nourishment is increasingly regarded as a promising nature-based strategy for coastal climate adaptation. However, despite this growing recognition, the assessment of how sand nourishment design impacts multifunctional adaptation remains limited. In this perspective article, we argue for three key lessons for researchers to optimise assessing multifunctional coastal climate adaptation by sand nourishment. We conducted stakeholder workshops to scope and inform our perspective, performed semi-structured literature reviews to concretise and validate this for international applications, built a qualitative model to visualise our interdisciplinary overview of how nourishments impact coastal multifunctionality, reflected on this in expert workshops, and identified implications for researchers. In this manner, we assessed the effects of nourishment design on coastal morphology, ecology, socio-economics and ecosystem services in realising the key policy goals of flood safety, nature and recreation. We found that sand nourishment design can result in conflicts between policy goals, generate ambiguous outcomes and lead to system-wide feedback effects. As such, we identified three key lessons: (1) conflicts between policy goals require informing political decision-making on prioritisation between coastal functions, (2) concreteness is needed on otherwise ambiguous functions, and (3) ongoing, multidisciplinary system-wide monitoring is essential. We thus call for a holistic approach to sand nourishment design and encourage researchers from diverse expertise and localities to expand on and adapt our findings to optimise informing sand nourishment design for delivering multifunctional coastal climate adaptation worldwide.