Field Measurements of Dynamic Beach Profiles to Assess Erosion Hazard on the Coast of Yantai, China

摘要

The coast of Yantai in China has often been ravaged by severe coastal storms together with high elevated water levels, resulting in severe beach erosion and inundation hazards. This study is undertaken to collect essential field data on beach transect profile, beach slope, maximum wave runup level and sediment grain size to assess coastal erosion hazard on Yantai Beach. There are 20 permanent beach transect profiles surveyed every month with RTK-GPS, and three sediment samples were collected from the dune/seawall, beach berm and swash zone. This study has found that the sandy beach backed by the vertical seawall is often flooded at daily high tides, while the beach backed by the sand dune is generally stable. A conceptual model is also applied to estimate shoreline setback distance in n years.