Morphodynamic evolution of a coastal lagoon entrance during swash overwash

Abstract

New field observations of beach berm growth resulting in the sub-aerial closure of an intermittently closed and open lake or lagoon are presented. These perched estuarine systems frequently exhibit ephemeral entrances that respond to process forcing almost instantaneously on a geomorphic timescale, with closure by a supra-tidal berm of depositional origin. The observations were made following a mechanical opening of the entrance and show very rapid vertical growth of an initially low beach berm as a result of swash overtopping and sediment overwash. Very little simultaneous seaward progradation was observed. Sediment overwash volumes were obtained from survey data over a period of 12 days either side of spring tide and the observations also provide an accurate measure of swash sediment transport at the berm crest. A process-based parametric model is developed through robust parameterisations of wave run-up, wave run-up distributions and sediment transport and is applied to predict the total overwash transport into and infilling the estuary entrance. The model is tested against the field data and compares well with the observations. While the field data are site-specific, the proposed modelling framework represents a first step in modelling the complex growth and recovery of natural beach berms in broad-scale morphodynamic models.