Beach response in front of structures in open coast
Minor funds contribution 2015-2017 \ Eastern Solent Coastal Partnership: £4,000
Lowering of beaches in front of coastal structures is widely accepted as a leading cause of failure. Beach lowering and toe scour is difficult to detect as the receding tide and storm waves tend to bury this evidence and any damage to structure foundations.
The SCOPAC region includes numerous beach structures at risk of scour, with foundations of poorly known depth and condition. Improved understanding of the scour risk at these structures will help SCOPAC members to better manage the scour risk and to design scour resistant replacements.
Stokes Bay seawall: toe piling exposed
Dr Andy Pearce from the Eastern Solent Coastal Partnership (ESCP) built upon the experience of Amanda Holland, a Ph.D student studying short term beach level changes at Hayling Island, by deploying scour chain monitors at two locations across the SCOPAC region – at Stokes Bay in Gosport and at Southsea, Portsmouth – to measure changes in beach levels and maximum scour depth during storms.
Findings from the study can be found in his Toe Scour Research Project report
Download the report (pdf, 6Mb)
Monitors installed and positioned with GPS
Monitors installed and positioned with GPS
Deployed Scour Monitor
Deployed Scour Monitor
Deployed Scour Monitor
Deployed scour monitor