BENEFICIAL USE OF DREDGED MATERIAL AND FATE OF PLACED SAND USING A HYBRID COSMOS-XBEACH SEDIMENT BUDGET MODEL

Abstract

The Corpus Christi Ship Channel in Texas connects the Port of Corpus Christi to the Gulf of Mexico. The Port is seeking to deepen the channel to allow fully loaded very large crude carriers to access proposed terminals within the port complex. Dredge material from the channel deepening is to be used as beach nourishment and to create offshore berms along Mustang Island and San Jose Island. The fate of the beach nourishment and offshore berms was assessed using the Hybrid C-X (COSMOSXBeach) Sediment Budget Model. Longshore and cross-shore transport processes were incorporated in the model using COSMOS (longshore) and XBeach (cross-shore) models. Multi-year simulation of the fate of placed material using process-based twodimensional horizontal (2DH) models requires long CPU times which are often impractical. A hybrid sediment budget model using process-based crossshore profile models was thus developed.