SPATIAL VARIABILITY IN BEACH MORPHOLOGY WITH RESPECT TO WAVE EXPOSURE ALONG A ZETA-SHAPED COASTLINE

Abstract

Regular, high spatial resolution survey datasets from dune to depth of closure are rare in the literature. These type of datasets have the ability to provide critical information about changing beach morphodynamics in both the two and three-dimensional space. A regional experiment was established for the open ocean beaches of the Gold Coast, Australia. Two years of high spatial frequency survey at five sites within the Gold Coast embayment are presented here. This paper details the usefulness of the unique dataset and its ability to further inform previously poorly understood coastal morphodynamic questions, such as bar migration and spatial variability in beach state energy with respect to wave direction. By comparing the spatial variability in beach morphology between the survey sites, under two different wave directions, it is shown that the wave direction and attenuation play an important a role in shaping bar morphology along the coast.