Medium-Term Longshore and Cross-shore Dynamics of a Gravel Spit Driving by Storm Events (Sillon de Talbert, Brittany, France)

The Sillon de Talbert (Northern coast of Brittany) is a large 3.5 km-long swash-aligned gravel spit comprising a volume of sediment of 1.23x106 m3. Since 2002, a morphodynamic survey based on annual DEMs, and waves and water level measurements and/or modeling, has been carried out. The 17-year (2002-2019) monitoring program shows that cross-shore sediment transfers reaching 430,000 m3 are dominant, while the longshore sediment transfer -through cannibalization process- is about 52,000 m3. The maximum landward displacement of the spit due to rollover processes reaches –4 m.yr-1. Storm events control more than 95% of this retreat due to catastrophic overwash/inundation processes that led to the opening of a breach in March 2018. The morphological evolution of the Sillon de Talbert is driven by anthropogenic forcing (i.e., impact of coastal defence structures, cutting off of longshore sediment transport), and natural forcing such as the depletion of the supply of sediment from the platform.