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The Zandmotor ("sand motor"), an experimental mega-scale beach nourishment located along the Delfland coast, the Netherlands. (a) The design of the Zandmotor mirrors the onshore migration of an (intertidal) sandbar and aims to provide coastal safety by redistributing its sand along the coastline, thereby broadening the beach and dunes. (b-c) Aerial photographs of the Zandmotor and Delfland coast taken on 9 July 2017, facing north (b) towards The Hague and south (c) towards the harbor of Rotterdam. The Delfland coast maintains relatively wide and natural dune areas, but in some places the dunes are no more than a narrow foredune ridge directly bordered by urbanized areas.
Source publication
With densely populated areas well below mean sea level, the
Netherlands relies heavily on its dunes to ensure coastal safety. About half of the sandy
coastline, however, is subject to structural marine erosion and requires frequent sand
nourishment as a counteractive measure. A key component of present-day coastal safety
policy is creating favorabl...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... favorable conditions for dune development is an important goal for the Zandmotor (Dutch for "sand motor", see Fig. 1), an unprecedented mega-scale beach nourish- ment of 21.5 Mm 3 constructed in 2011 just south of The Hague ( Stive et al., 2013). The overall purpose of this mega- nourishment experiment is to test whether its benefits in terms if coastal safety, spatial quality and natural values out- weigh the extra costs involved and to determine to ...
Context 2
... while the Delfland coast partly maintains rela- tively wide and natural dune areas, the aerial photos in Fig. 1 clearly show that in some places the dunes are not more than a narrow foredune ridge that is directly bordered by urban areas. Because the region is densely populated, the coastline (including the Zandmotor) faces persistent pressure from anthropogenic disturbances. Even though the Delfland coast is meant to serve a wide range of ...
Context 3
... 15 • stoss slope was manually planted with shoots of marram grass in a reg- ular pattern of about 7-9 small tussocks per square meter. About 75 % of the Delfland coastline has been reinforced in this manner between 2009 and 2011. The newly created fore- dune ridge stretches landward approximately until the paved bike path (gray line in Fig. 1) that runs along its ...
Context 4
... the new safety standards were met, the Delfland coast was considered an appropriate location to conduct the Zandmotor mega-nourishment experiment. As can be seen in Fig. 1, the Zandmotor has a hook-shaped design that aims to mirror the natural onshore migration of an intertidal sandbar. Just after construction it had a surface area of about 28 ha, extending 2.5 km along the coastline and protruding 1 km into the sea. Natural processes have since then been working to redistribute the sand, causing the ...
Context 5
... ±2.4 cm. Data are available at https://rijkswaterstaat.nl/apps/ geoservices/geodata/dmc (last access: 16 January 2018). The Delfland coast considered in the analysis covers a subaerial area of about 500 ha and extends in the landward direction until the older established dunes. This approximately coin- cides with the paved bike-path (gray line in Fig. 1) running along the crest of the newly created foredune ridge. In order to compare the morphology and morphological changes in the Delfland coast against the presence of dunes and changes in dune cover by marram grass, the 2 m resolution DTMs were resampled using bilinear interpolation to match the 10 m pixel size of the Sentinel-2 ...
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Citations
... These limitations particularly affect deltas [17], small islands [18] and cities [19], where urgent adaptation is required to reduce vulnerability and risk under present and future climates [7,[20][21][22]. Urban and peri-urban beaches are the coastal archetype selected in this paper to develop a set of adaptation pathways under climate change conditions in support of the transformative change promoted by the local government of Catalonia (new Coastal Protection and Management Plan (CPM plan for short)). ...
Coastal zones experience increasing climatic and human pressures, which lead to growing risks and tipping points (TPs) under future scenarios and natural resource scarcity. To avoid crossing TPs with irreversible coastal losses, this paper proposes the development of adaptation pathways based on advanced coastal oceanography and engineering knowledge that enables a comprehensive assessment of evolving coastal risks. These pathways feature sequential interventions steered by simulations and observations as a function of available coastal resources (mainly space and sediment) and risks for infrastructure and socioeconomic assets. Such an adaptation has been developed for urban and peri-urban Mediterranean beaches, considering conventional coastal engineering together with nature-based solutions (NbS). Both types of interventions are assessed in terms of key physical variables, which serve to evaluate performance and estimate TPs. This analysis supports the new coastal protection and management plan promoted by the regional government of Catalonia and the coastal adaptation plan of the central government of Spain. The approach and results illustrate the potential of adaptation pathways for beach sustainability, enhancing the compatibility between short-/long-term coastal protection objectives under present/future climate and management scenarios. The development of adaptation pathways underpins increasing stakeholder cooperation to achieve shared decisions for coastal sustainability.
... Urgent coastal adaptation is required for deltas [15], small islands [16] and cities [17], where urban coasts present high vulnerability under present and future climates [5,[18][19][20]. Urban and periurban beaches are the coastal archetype selected in this paper to develop a set of adaptation pathways under climate change, in support of the transformative change promoted by the local government of Catalonia (new Coastal Protection and Management Plan, CPM plan in short). ...
Coastal zones experience increasing climatic and human pressures, which lead to growing risks and tipping points (TPs) under future scenarios and natural resource scarcity. To avoid crossing TPs with irreversible coastal losses, this paper proposes the development of adaptation pathways based on advanced coastal oceanography and engineering knowledge that enables an objective assessment of evolving coastal risks. These pathways feature sequential interventions, combining conventional engineering works with nature-based solutions (NbS), steered by simulations and observations as a function of available coastal resources (space and sediment) and risks for infrastructure and socioeconomic assets. Such an adaptation has been developed for urban and peri-urban Mediterranean beaches, considering conventional coastal engineering together with NbS. Both types of interventions are assessed in terms of key physical variables, which serve to evaluate performance and estimate TPs. This analysis supports the new coastal protection and management plan promoted by the local government and the coastal adaptation plan of the central government. The approach and results illustrate the potential of adaptation pathways for beach sustainability, enhancing the compatibility between short/long-term coastal protection objectives under present/future climate and management scenarios. The adaptation pathways development underpins an increasing stakeholder cooperation to achieve shared decisions for coastal sustainability.
... Those efforts tend to focus on stabilizing the coastal profile that encompasses lower beach and foredunes. Highly dynamic processes of wind and waves cause changes to this profile (Davidson-Arnott & Law, 1996;Montreuil et al., 2013;Nolet & Riksen, 2019;van Puijenbroek, Limpens, et al., 2017). Perennial grass species such as European marram grass (Ammophila arenaria [L.] Link; Calamagrostis arenaria [L.] Roth) and sand couch (Elytrigia juncea [L.] Nevski; Elymus farctus boreoatlanticus) provide resistance to these changes and play a key role for topographic stability as well as the initial formation of coastal dunes (Hesp, 1981(Hesp, , 2008Roelvink & Costas, 2019;van Puijenbroek, Limpens, et al., 2017). ...
... To better understand how future plant growth of dune building species will be affected, subsequent studies should focus on the intensity of extreme events, which are thought to have a greater influence on drought-related stress and plant growth than average conditions . Moreover, dune vegetation growth is not only affected by water availability but also by a range of other factors such as salinity, nutrient content, sediment dynamics and recreation pressure (Andersen, 1995;Konlechner et al., 2013;Lammers et al., 2023;Nolet et al., 2018;Nolet & Riksen, 2019;Reijers et al., 2021;van Puijenbroek, Teichmann, et al., 2017;Willis, 1965). ...
The formation and development of coastal dunes are influenced by the growth of dune‐building grasses. Concurrently, the development of coastal dunes has been positively related to growing season precipitation, which might be due to precipitation promoting the growth of dune‐building grasses. However, a direct response relationship between precipitation and dune‐building grasses has yet to be identified. We explored the impact of precipitation on dune‐building grass species using a three‐step approach. (1) We assessed how plant‐available soil moisture changed with precipitation along an elevation profile from embryo dune to foredune. (2) We quantified the growth response of European marram grass ( Ammophila arenaria [L.] Link ) and sand couch ( Elytrigia juncea [L.] Nevski ) in a controlled pot experiment with water treatments derived from long‐term precipitation records. (3) We explored the impact of different precipitation scenarios on the growth of dune‐building grasses. Our field monitoring results showed that changes in soil moisture of the upper soil profile (0–50 cm) closely followed precipitation dynamics for all topographic positions. In our controlled pot experiment, soil moisture significantly increased plant growth in plant attributes associated with dune‐building, irrespective of species. Our scenario analyses indicated that prolonged periods with deviations from average growing season precipitation significantly affect plant growth, with extremely dry years reducing plant growth up to 23% and extremely wet years increasing plant growth up to 32%. Hence, in precipitation‐dependent coastal dune ecosystems, future extreme climatic events might have considerable consequences for dune development by notably influencing the growth of dune‐building vegetation.
... The development of dunes on sandy coasts depends on several factors [1] among which the existence of accommodation space where the dune can be stabilized is of prime importance [2]. On microtidal coasts, where sedimentary accretion processes prevail, beach ridges usually form to reflect fluctuations in environmental conditions through the recent historical evolution of the shoreline [3]. ...
La Banya spit, located at the south of the River Ebro Delta, is a sandy formation, developed by annexation of bars forming successive beach ridges, which are oriented and modeled by the eastern and southern waves. The initial ridges run parallel to the coastline, and above them small dunes developed, the crests of which are oriented by dominant winds, forming foredune ridges and barchans. This study attempted to test a number of techniques in order to understand the dune dynamic on this coastal spit between 2004 and 2012: LiDAR data were used to reconstruct changes to the surface and volume of the barchan dunes and foredunes; ground-penetrating radar was applied to obtain an image of their internal structure, which would help to understand their recent evolution. GPS data taken on the field, together with application of GIS techniques, made possible the combination of results and their comparison. The results showed a different trend between the barchan dunes and the foredunes. While the barchan dunes increased in area and volume between 2004 and 2012, the foredunes lost thickness. This was also reflected in the radargrams: the barchan dunes showed reflectors related to the growth of the foresets while those associated with foredunes presented truncations associated with storm events. However, the global balance of dune occupation for the period 2004–2012 was positive.
Humans are an important process in coastal evolution. Landforms are being directly eliminated, trampled, reshaped, mobilized, stabilized, or affected indirectly by human actions outside their boundaries. Buildings and support infrastructure directly alter processes and patterns of deposition and indirectly influence landforms as a result of human actions to maintain or protect facilities. Not all human actions are destructive to landforms. Beaches can be restored through nourishment operations, and dunes can be rebuilt, aided by sand fences and vegetation plantings. Restrictions in space and ongoing human attempts to modify landforms alter them from their former appearance, but many natural and human-use values can be provided by human-altered landforms through careful management. Compromise solutions will be required to accommodate nature while retaining recreational and protective values of landforms in restricted space. Many new and interesting research opportunities are available for geomorphologists working on human altered coasts, but the temporal and spatial scales of their investigations may be more restricted, while the number of variables they address may be increased.
This new edition - now with Nancy Jackson as a co-author - continues the themes of the first edition: the need to restore the biodiversity, ecosystem health, and ecosystem services provided by coastal landforms and habitats, especially in the light of climate change. The second edition reports on progress made on practices identified in the first edition, presents additional case studies, and addresses new and emerging issues. It analyzes the tradeoffs involved in restoring beaches and dunes - especially on developed coasts - the most effective approaches to use, and how stakeholders can play an active role. The concept of restoration is broad, and includes physical, ecological, economic, social, and ethical principles and ideals. The book will be valuable for coastal scientists, engineers, planners, and managers, as well as shorefront residents. It will also serve as a useful supplementary reference textbook in courses dealing with issues of coastal management and ecology.
