Estimation of littoral drift for non monsoon using beach and nearshore profiles: Fid-Bau Portal

Estimation of littoral drift for non monsoon using beach and nearshore profiles

Bollapragada, Gopikrishna / Agrawal, J D

Beach profile measurements spatially and temporally or information on periodical dredging helps in assessing the littoral drift in an area. Beach profiling is one of the traditional methods to understand the beach as well as nearshore morphology in a short term. Exact quantification is always a challenging task near coasts as a part of coastal zone management activities due to the lack of enough information pertaining to sediments and its movement. In this study, the long and crossshore movements of sediments were analysed by using beach and nearshore profiles at three typical locations along South Karnataka coast in non-monsoon season. The rates of changes in areas and volumes were estimated along Gokarna, Honnavar and Malpe locations. All the locations are connected with inlets or estuaries or ports. The analysis of nearshore profiles indicated marginal changes in areas at Gokarna and Honnavar. The change is relatively more at Malpe site. The rate of volume changes of sediment over a study period increases towards south from Gokarna to Malpe and varies from 0.14 M m³ to 0.17 M m³. The potential longshore drift along the coast was also estimated whose correlation is strong with the shoreline orientations of the locations considered.