Long Term Assessment of Beach Nourishment Project Performance
by Donald K. Stauble, U.S. Army Engineer Waterways, Experiment Station, Vicksburg, United States,Garry W. Holem, U.S. Army Engineer Waterways, Experiment Station, Vicksburg, United States,
Document Type: Proceeding Paper
Part of: Coastal Zone '91
Abstract:
Long-term data on profile response, sediment distribution and wave information have been collected and analyzed for the Indialantic/Melbourne Beach beach nourishment project in order to properly assess the history of fill volume retention and fill grain size stability through time. A fill volume of 195,060 m3 was placed in the winter of 1980 along a 3.4 km section of beach in Brevard County, Florida, located 43 km south of Cape Canaveral. The borrow material was from an upland source and was placed by truck haul on the design profile. The longer-term monitoring of the project from five months to seven years after fill placement consisted of near-quarterly profiles, with additional profiles bracketing significant storm events. A seasonality of summer accretion and winter erosion was observed during this period. Storm frequency was the controlling factor in rate of fill removed from the foreshore. As a result of each storm, coarser fill material was exposed and reintroduced along the fill placement zone. Foreshore sediment sample composites showed a seasonal trend along with coarsening after each storm. The systematic monitoring of this beach nourishment project over the long-term provided insight into initial rapid readjustment of the fill template, seasonal and storm variability in fill profile and sediment adjustment, project response and protection provided to storm conditions, and the temporal longevity of fill performance. This type of data is necessary to improve design concepts of fill placement, design berm templates, borrow area suitability and temporal prediction of project lifespan.
Subject Headings: Coastal management | Fills | Beach protection and nourishment | Project management | Storms | Sediment | Beach profiles | Florida | United States
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