Author(s): Howard N. Southgate

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Abstract: The prediction of coastal morphology on time scales of up to decades is an important consideration in the design of sea defences and other coastal engineering works. In recent years, computer models of various types have been developed for this purpose. Mostly, these have focussed on the representation of small-scale wave, current and sediment transport processes which are then combined to determine morphological development in a time- stepping manner. This process-based approach turns out to be limited, by computing time and result accuracy, to predictions over total timespans of up to days, weeks and possibly months. Models for longer term morphodynamic predictions involve simplifications of many of the physical processes and operate with larger space and/or time discretisations. Although these models can be valuable for predictions of long-term and large-scale trends in beach behaviour, the shorter term variabilities about these trends are either not predicted at all, or suffer from oversimplified representations of processes and morphological feedback mechanisms.

DOI:

Year: 1997