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Abstract: The south-western shoreline along the entrance channel inside the Port of Richards Bay has experienced continued erosion. Four groynes were constructed to stabilise the shoreline. Monitoring of shoreline evolution provided valuable data on the accretion adjacent to two of the groynes and on the sediment transport rates at these groynes. Tides, beach slopes, winds, wave climate, current regime, and sand grain sizes were documented. The one site is “moderately protected” from wave action while the other is “protected” according to the Wiegel [Wiegel, R. L. (1964). Oceanographical engineering. Prentice Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, NJ.] classification. The shoreline accreted progressively at the two groynes at 0.065 m/day and 0.021 m/day respectively. The shorelines accreted right up to the most seaward extremity of the groynes. Equilibrium shorelines were reached within about 3.5 years to 4 years, which compare well with other sites around the world. The mean wave incidence angle is large and was found to be about 22°. The median sand grain sizes were 0.33 mm and 0.37 mm. The groynes acted as total traps, the beach surveys were extended to an adequate depth, and cross-shore sediment transport did not cause appreciable net sand losses into the entrance channel. The net longshore transport rate along the study area, which is north-westbound, is only slightly lower than the gross longshore transport. The actual net longshore transport rates are 18 000 m3/year and 4 600 m3/year respectively at the two groynes. A rocky area limits the availability of sand at one groyne. There is fair agreement between the predicted and measured longshore transport rates at the other groyne. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Low crested structures for beach defence purposes are frequently configured in the form of cells. This paper investigates the hydrodynamic and morphological response of such defence schemes by means of laboratory experiments and numerical simulations. Experiments were carried out at the large mobile-bed basin of the “Laboratorio di Idraulica Costiera” of the “Politecnico di Bari”, IT. Tests peculiarity is the simultaneous simulation of three different types of lateral confinement: a channel, representative of an indefinitely long structure, and two areas with narrow and wide gaps, representative of a common scheme and of an almost isolated structure respectively. Submerged, zero freeboard and emerged conditions were tested. A typical storm of the Northern Adriatic sea was reproduced by 6 wave attacks. Water level and currents were measured in front and behind the structures, at gaps and roundheads. Results, focusing on rip current intensities and piling-up, are presented and discussed. An extensive plan view of wave intensities and flow patterns inside the basin is provided through numerical simulations with MIKE 21 numerical suite. The sand bed was surveyed along 30 profiles covering the narrow gap area and the isolated structure roundheads. For the submerged conditions tests, 15 of these profiles and the shoreline position were monitored after each step of the simulated storm. Average and maximum values of local erosion at the structure toe are presented. Time evolution of erosion at gaps is related to the main hydrodynamic variables through Bijker sediment transport formula. Evaluation of volume changes in the protected area shows that sand is in average trapped behind the barriers, being transported offshore from gaps and returning inshore over the crest. The observed and reconstructed transport mechanism is a combination of bed load and suspended transport, the latter being slightly more important. Bed level changes are well predicted by morphodynamic simulations performed with MIKE 21 CAMS. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The Frisian Inlet is one of the tidal basins of the Dutch Wadden Sea. In 1969, its basin area was reduced by 30%. As documented by bathymetric surveys, this has led to an import of sediment of 30×106 m3 over the first 18 years. The study presented in this paper seeks to establish the mechanisms responsible for the passage of the sediment through the throat cross-section of the inlet channel. Emphasis is on a 14-day period of relative calm when sediment transport can be attributed solely to tidal currents. Use is made of continuous measurements of velocity, sand and silt concentration. The measurement station was located on one side of the throat cross-section in a water depth of approximately 6 m. For both the sand and silt fraction of the sediment, suspended load transport is the dominant transport mode. It is shown that for sand, concentration variations and net transport are determined by the local (in the throat section) velocity. Especially the residual velocity and tidal velocity asymmetry play an important role in the net sand flux. For silt, except for transport associated with locally generated vertical mixing, the net transport is largely determined by sedimentation–erosion processes in the basin and the silt concentration in the North Sea. Comparison with measurements in a station located in the middle of the throat section shows considerable difference in residual velocity and tidal velocity asymmetry. As a result, the sediment fluxes also differ. Accurately determining the net sediment flux in the throat section would require a dense net of measurement stations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The autonomous nearshore bar behaviour along the barrier island of Terschelling, The Netherlands, is characterised by the presence of net seaward cyclic migrating sand bars generated near the shoreline. In 1993, a perturbation of the cyclic bar system was introduced by the implementation of a 2 Mm3 shoreface nourishment supplied to the nearshore bar zone, filling up the trough between the middle and outer bar. The morphodynamic response of the nearshore bars to the nourishment perturbation is investigated using a bathymetric data set with an alongshore extent of 12 km and sampled for 10 years. Bar behaviour is quantified in terms of bar crest position in relation to morphometric parameters such as bar depth, height, width and volume. Along with a pronounced development of a three-dimensional bar system unseen in the autonomous behaviour, the nearshore bars exhibited a 6–7 year arrest in their migrational behaviour during which bar morphology remained stable at immediate pre-nourishment morphometric values. At the subsequent onset of bar movement, bars resumed their migration at a rate predicted by autonomous behaviour in parallel development with morphometric parameters along their predicted trends. It is shown that the observed onshore transport of nourished sediment in the 6–7 year arrest results from a gradual deepening of troughs. Cross-shore sediment transport modelling is used to assess the effect of the nourishment on yearly averaged onshore (short-wave nonlinearity) and offshore (undertow) sediment transport rates. The gradual reappearance of the pre-nourishment bar-trough morphology is shown to engender a normalisation in the cross-shore distribution of sediment transport rates to pre-nourishment rates. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]