EMPIRICAL FORMULA TO ESTIMATE BORROW SEDIMENTS ULTIMATE BEACH CAPABILITY THROUGH CASE STUDIES, IN FLORIDA AND TEXAS

摘要

Environmental and anthropogenic sources often negatively impact coastal areas and commonly sandy shorelines. These challenges have to be met by developing new engineering solutions and advancing existing practices to achieve a balance within the confines of law and environmental practice. One of the most common approaches that is employed to achieve this balance is beach nourishment. However, beach quality sediment is a finite resource and in many regions of the world is becoming extremely scarce. The composition of sediment is altered during the dredging and beach placement process, typically improving in sediment beach compatibility. Since there is not an accepted methodology to predict these changes to the sediment, regulators typically take the conservative approach of regulating nourishment and beneficial use projects sediment based on the borrow source characteristics. This paper utilized data collected at various projects in Florida and Texas to generate an empirical formula to estimate the loss of fine sediments during dredging and ultimately through the beach placement process. The formula estimates losses due to dredging equipment operations, slope of the effluent return channel at the beach, sediment settling velocity, and sorting parameter.