Video-based Monitoring of an Artificial Beach Nourishment Project

Cao, Z.; Zhang, C.; Chi, S.; Zhuang, L., and Zheng, J., 2020. Video-based monitoring of an artificial beach nourishment project. In: Malvárez, G. and Navas, F. (eds.), Global Coastal Issues of 2020. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 95, pp. 1037-1041. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. This paper presents a case study on field observation of a new artificial beach nourishment project in Rizhao Coast, China. Using video-based monitoring technique combined with beach profile surveying, wave overtopping features prior to nourishment, shoreline change during the construction, and short-term post-fill morphological evolution of the artificial beach are observed and analyzed. Results show that wave overtopping characteristics and nourishing process can be quantified through video imagery analysis. Two-month post-fill profile and shoreline data reveal that little sand has been moved to the deep water and overall sand volume above -6 m elevation remained stable. The northern beach evolution was dominated by alongshore sediment transport and the eroded sands from central beach were mainly transported to the north, while the southern beach evolution was affected by both alongshore and cross-shore processes due to sheltering effect of the southern breakwater. Attention is recommended to be paid to the relationship between overwash-driven onshore sediment transport and berm/backshore evolution, as well as the future evolution of beach morphology close to the northern breakwater. The present study suggests that integrating the video-based and the conventional monitoring approaches can be helpful to capture and interpret in more details the physical processes involved in different phases of a beach nourishment project.