APPLICATION OF SHORE PROTECTION SCHEMES IN HORNBAEK

Abstract

Hornbask Harbour was built more than a hundred years ago on a sandy coast with predominant eastward longshore sediment transport. After construction of the harbour the littoral transport was disrupted leading to a large accretion of sand upstream of the harbour whereas lee-side erosion occurred downstream of the harbour. Soon problems were experienced due to sedimentation in the harbour entrance and in the beginning of the century a breakwater was constructed for blocking the sand transport. This breakwater was later extended and finally a lee-side breakwater was constructed. Hornbask harbour represents a classical case of the problems encountered when constructing a harbour on a coast with littoral drift. Only in recent years focus has been put on environmental issues and the present project shows a good example of remedial measures by involving a number of shore protection schemes. The applied shore protection schemes consist of beach nourishment, beach dewatering and maintenance of shingle beaches along with extension and repair of existing slope protection. On completion of the project a monitoring programme has been started in order to track the development of the coastline in response to the beach nourishment scheme.