A Potential Beach Monitoring Based on Integrated Methods

Abstract

This study focuses on the analysis of sandy beaches by integrating sedimentological, geomorphological, and geophysical investigations. The beach represents an extremely variable environment where different natural processes act simultaneously with human activities, leading to the gathering of different methodologies of the Earth Sciences to study its evolution in space and time. The aim of this research is to propose a potential procedure for monitoring the morpho-sedimentary processes of sandy beaches by analyzing the textural and compositional characteristics of the sands and quantifying the volumes involved in the coastal dynamics. The study area includes two Apulian sandy beaches (Torre Guaceto and Le Dune beach) that are representative of the coastal dynamics of a large sector of the central/northern Mediterranean Sea involving the southern Adriatic Sea and the northern Ionian Sea. Sedimentological and ecological investigations allowed to describe the textural and compositional characteristics of the beach sands by interpreting their sand provenance and the physical/biological interactions within the beach. The topographic surveys carried out with a Terrestrial Laser Scanner and an Optical Total Station, aimed to quantify the variations of sediment volume over time, whereas the Delft3d software was applied to analyze the effects of the dominant wave motion on the sedimentary dynamics. Lastly, the geophysical techniques which included Sub Bottom Profiler procedures, Ground Penetrating Radar investigation, and resistivity models enabled us to calculate the sand sediment thickness above the bedrock.

Wind–Wave Conditions and Change in Coastal Landforms at the Beach–Dune Barrier of Cesine Lagoon (South Italy)

“…For this purpose, it is essential to calculate the sedimentary budget [1][2][3]. Coastal geomorphological and sedimentological monitoring, including also the whole upper shoreface (for the case study the annual closure depth is about 5.5 m, see Section 2) is the most effective tool to achieve the goal [11,71]. In particular, to have real data on the geomorphological influence of extreme events, it is necessary to perform barrier profiling and sampling before and after storms.…”

An Integrated Approach between Multispectral Satellite Images and Geophysical and Morpho-Topographic Surveys for the Detection of Water Stress Associated with Coastal Dune Erosion

“…The analysis of multispectral optical satellite images allowed for the estimation of normalized vegetation indices, including the NDVI and the normalized difference moisture index (NDMI), which are particularly useful for characterizing the status of vegetative health with respect to water stress. Coastal changes were highlighted by conducting morpho-topographic surveys using terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) systems [16][17][18][19][20] as well as the analysis of LiDAR data [21][22][23][24] across different time periods. Geoelectrical surveys were also used to show the influence of groundwater flow on the root systems of the dune vegetation and were eventually used to highlight seawater intrusions in the study area.…”