Sediment trapping at Florida's east coast inlets

Abstract

In response to the need to evaluate the coastal sedimentary budget, sediment volumes associated with nineteen tidal inlets along the east coast of Florida have been estimated. Significant regions examined were ebb and flood shoals, the adjacent beaches, and the sources and placement areas for dredged material. A total of 420 x 106 m3 of predominantly sandy sediment resides in the ebb shoals. Of this amount, 350 x 106 m3 or 83%, occur in the five northernmost inlets. As a result of artificially opened inlets and training of inlets of natural origin, 282 x 106 m3 of sediment have been trapped mainly from the littoral drift. Over the years, a surprisingly large amount, 41 x 106 m3, from dredged inlet channels, has been placed at sea.