How to Cite
Abstract
Vegetation has been shown to reduce beach erosion by attenuating wave energy and trapping sediments (Feagin et al., 2015). To date, most of the studies on erosion reduction by vegetation are either theoretical, numerical, or based on laboratory experiments. Field data that quantify the effectiveness of beach vegetation as a protective measure against erosion is sparse owing to the difficulty in conducting controlled field experiments (Feagin et al., 2015). To improve our understanding of wave-beach-vegetation interaction, we conducted a field experiment from September 19 to October 10, 2021, at the US Army Corps of Engineers’ Field Research Facility (FRF) in Duck, North Carolina, as part of DUNEX (DUring Nearshore Event eXperiment). For this experiment, we installed a patch of artificial vegetation in the swash zone, constructed out of materials with known mechanical properties, to test how beach vegetation attenuates wave energy and reduces erosion. It is to be noted that we used zipties to build our vegetation patch.References
Ali, Darsan & Wilson (2017): Cusp morphodynamics in a micro-tidal exposed beach, Journal of Coastal Conservation, 21(6), 777-788.
Baas (2002): Chaos, fractals and self-organization in coastal geomorphology: simulating dune landscapes in vegetated environments, Geomorphology, 48(1-3), 309-328.
Ciriano, Coco, Bryan & Elgar (2005): Field observations of swash zone infragravity motions and beach cusp evolution, Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 110(C2).
Coco, Burnet, Werner & Elgar (2003): Test of self‐organization in beach cusp formation, Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 108(C3).
Coco, O'Hare & Huntley (1999): Beach cusps: a comparison of data and theories for their formation, Journal of Coastal Research, 741-749.
Daly, Floc'h, Almeida, Almar, & Jaud (2021): Morphodynamic modelling of beach cusp formation: The role of wave forcing and sediment composition, Geomorphology, 389, 107798.
Dodd, Stoker, Calvete, & Sriariyawat (2008): On beach cusp formation, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 597, 145-169.
Feagin, Figlus, Zinnert, Sigren, Martínez, Silva, ... & Carter (2015): Going with the flow or against the grain? The promise of vegetation for protecting beaches, dunes, and barrier islands from erosion. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 13(4), 203-210.
FRF Data Portal (n.d.): Retrieved from https://frfdataportal.erdc.dren.mil/#
Guza & Inman (1975): Edge waves and beach cusps, Journal of Geophysical Research, 80(21), 2997-3012.
Houghton (1996): Climate change 1995: The science of climate change: contribution of working group I to the second assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Vol. 2), Cambridge University Press.
Inman & Guza (1982): The origin of swash cusps on beaches, Marine Geology, 49(1-2), 133-148.
Leatherman, Zhang, & Douglas (2000): Sea level rise shown to drive coastal erosion, Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union, 81(6), 55-57.
Sunamura, & Aoki (2000): A field experiment of cusp formation on a coarse clastic beach using a suspended video‐camera system, Earth surface processes and landforms, 25(3), 329-333.
Vousdoukas (2012): Erosion/accretion patterns and multiple beach cusp systems on a meso-tidal, steeply-sloping beach, Geomorphology, 141, 34-46.
Watson, Zinyowera, & Moss (1996): Climate change 1995. Impacts, adaptations and mitigation of climate change: scientific-technical analyses.
Werner & Fink (1993): Beach cusps as self-organized patterns, Science, 260(5110), 968-971.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2023 Maqsood Mansur, Reza Salatin, Tyler McCormack, Qin Chen, Julia Hopkins, Patrick J. Dickhudt