7 - Regional Sediment Management at Beach–Inlet Systems

Summary

At a regional scale, the state of the coast can be understood from a sediment budget point of view. For example, accretion occurs when more sand is transported into the system than is being transported out, while erosion occurs when more sand is leaving the system than coming in. Therefore, shore protection or stabilization can be achieved by balancing the sediment budget at an adequate spatial and temporal scale. However, the practice of balancing a sediment budget at a regional scale is quite complicated and has not been broadly applied till the recent 20 years. This chapter discusses the formulation of a regional sediment budget at beach–inlet systems. The inlet reservoir model, which accounts for temporal evolution of sediment volume at an ebb tidal delta, is discussed. At a local scale, sediment bypassing or backpassing and inlet channel dredging are often conducted, and these methods are reviewed in the context of regional sediment management.