International audienceThis manuscript reports on a novel field experiment carried out on a microtidal beach in Camargue, France. For the first time in the field, a comprehensive description of the groundwater dynamics under sandy beach swash zone is presented. A cross-shore network of 15 buried pressure sensors is combined with terrestrial LiDAR measurements to study the swash-groundwater dynamics. The presented data focus on the decay of a moderate storm which allows to monitor the evolution of the groundwater pressure field in response to the retreat of the swash zone. Both horizontal and vertical head gradients are measured within the porous sand soil to estimate the groundwater flow field using Darcy’s law. Time-averaged analysis demonstrates the presence of a rather consistent groundwater circulation pattern under the swash zone, shifting offshore with the swash zone. The main tendency is an offshore directed flow, with infiltration/exfiltration in the upper/lower parts of the swash zone. Time-resolved analysis highlights the typical groundwater response to swash events which consists mainly of an overall infiltration flow during the bed inundation by the swash tongue, a seaward flow during the swash retreat and, for long backwash events, a localized exfiltration flow under the next incoming uprush

International audienceMorphodynamics of sandy, macrotidal, embayed beaches is complex because of the numerous physical processes interacting at the same location over a wide range of temporal scales. As most of these processes are controlled by beach morphology, dynamic feedbacks are generally observed between hydro- and morphodynamics. Investigating short-term processes is essential in order to improve long term morphological prediction. A key question is to understand how beach slope reacts to forcing conditions, in particular the response time of the beach profile, how long the transient state lasts. This study deals with the spatial and temporal responses of beach morphology to varying incident conditions. Here we report main observations, preliminary results and on-going investigations on the DYNATREZ1 field campaign, which was conducted in the framework of the National Observation Service Dynalit. Beach profiles are shown to adapt rapidly to forcing conditions, within two days, with more intense variations observed in the high tide swash zone. The presence of infragravity waves and their dissipation on the beach is highlighted. It is likely that the very large variability in beach slope observed over a single neapspring cycle is responsible for the accordingly large variability in wave skewness, asymmetry and breaking processes, and thus in sediment fluxes and morphological changes