Conclusion

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Beach renourishment has been an effective way of maintaining beaches as a recreational resource and scenic amenity, and of countering coastal erosion in several countries around the world, and is widely preferred to the use of solid structures such as sea walls and groynes for coastal stabilisation. It is acknowledged that beach renourishment is not a permanent solution to the problem of beach erosion and coastal stabilisation, but nor is the use of artificial structures. Coastal management is necessarily a long-term strategy, with techniques likely to improve with experience.

A variety of approaches to beach renourishment have been developed to assist design, and a variety of monitoring techniques have been widely employed to evaluate performance. However, despite this experience, it remains difficult to predict the morphological behaviour of renourished beaches because of the complex interactions which occur between coastal processes, beach and nearshore morphology and sediments (Blott and Pye 2004).

Beach erosion is likely to increase in future because of a rising sea level and a possible increase in the frequency and severity of storms (Hoagland et al. 2012). In consequence, there will be an increase in the use of beach renourishment: Campbell and Benedet (2006) have suggested that beach nourishment volumes in the United States could double or triple over the next 25 years. One problem will be the securing of sufficient sources of sediment for beach renourishment, which will increase demands for sea floor dredging and for quarrying of sand and gravel for this purpose.