Strategies and practice of beach nourishment in Beidaihe, China

摘要

The Beidaihe coast has the characteristic planform of a cape-bay beach, with sands distributed in the beach. However, for more than a half-century, the beach of Beidaihe has eroded significantly with an erosion rate ranging between 2 m/yr and 3 m/yr. Using artificial cape-bay methods, research and practices on artificial beach nourishment have been carried out in Beidaihe beach since 2000. These methods, using both hard and soft tactics, mainly are flexible engineering methods with a beach protection mode of "sand dune, beach, sand bar, submerged breakwater" from the coast area to the open sea. The length of the project shoreline is 3.5 km, and the total sand volume of artificial beach nourishment is about 1,870,000 m~3, which is the longest beach shoreline nourishment project in China at present. The monitoring data of the beach nourishment show that the most obvious change happened in the first year after the project. It is expected that the beach will become more stable over time as the profile equilibrates and the sand is sorted by wave action.