Effect of Varying Sediment Size on Equilibrium Beach Profiles

by Paul A. Work, Univ of Florida, Gainesville, United States,
Robert G. Dean, Univ of Florida, Gainesville, United States,



Document Type: Proceeding Paper

Part of: Coastal Sediments

Abstract:

Beach profiles from four field sites and accompanying data describing the cross-shore distribution of median sediment size are analyzed and compared to predicted profiles based on an equilibrium beach profile theory (Dean, 1977). A 'blindfolded' test is described for comparison of measured and predicted profiles, using the known spatial distribution of sediment sizes. Several best-fit analyses are described and compared to both the measured and blindfolded realizations of the profile. Results indicate that the inclusion of the cross-shore variation of sediment size does not drastically improve the accuracy of the predicted profile. The simplest form of the predicted profile, assuming one representative sediment size for the entire profile, generally agrees well with the measured profile.

Subject Headings: Sediment | Beach profiles | Spatial distribution | Sediment transport | Equilibrium | Shores | Water supply systems

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