Abstract
AbstractUnder natural conditions, barrier islands might grow vertically and migrate onshore under the influence of long‐term sea level rise. Sediment is transported onshore during storm‐induced overwash and inundation. However, on many Dutch Wadden Islands, dune openings are closed off by artificial sand‐drift dikes that prevent the influx of sediment during storms. It has been argued that creating openings in the dune row to allow regular flooding on barrier islands can have a positive effect on the sediment budget, but the dominant hydrodynamic processes and their influence on sediment transport during overwash and inundation are unknown. Here, we present an XBeach model study to investigate how sediment transport during overwash and inundation across the beach of a typical mesotidal Wadden Sea barrier island is influenced by wave, tide and storm surge conditions. Firstly, we validated the model XBeach with field data on waves and currents during island inundation. In general, the XBeach model performed well. Secondly, we studied the long‐term sediment transport across the barrier island. We distinguished six representative inundation classes, ranging from frequently occurring, low‐energy events to infrequent, high‐energy events, and simulated the hydrodynamics and sediment transport during these events. An analysis of the model simulations shows that larger storm events cause larger cross‐shore sediment transport, but the net sediment exchange during a storm levels off or even becomes smaller for the largest inundation classes because it is counteracted by larger mean water levels in the Wadden Sea that oppose or even reverse sediment transport during inundation. When taking into account the frequency of occurrence of storms we conclude that the cumulative effect of relatively mild storms on long‐term cross‐shore sediment transport is much larger than that of the large storm events. © 2017 The Authors. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Highlights
Many barrier systems all over the world are threatened by the effects of long-term sea level rise (Flato et al, 2013)
We investigate how sediment transport during overwash and inundation across the beach of a typical Wadden Sea barrier island is influenced by wave, tide and storm surge conditions
The model–data comparison shows good agreement, which is illustrated with all the r2 and bias values (Table I) and the scatter plots at the instruments PT5 and ADV2, close to the beach crest (Figure 6)
Summary
Many barrier systems all over the world are threatened by the effects of long-term sea level rise (Flato et al, 2013). If sediment is abundant and the rate of sea level rise is small, barrier islands can maintain their shape by moving landward, a process called rollover (Donnelly et al, 2006; Leatherman, 1985; Masselink and van Heteren, 2014; Williams, 2015). Existing studies on overwash and inundation often focused on microtidal regimes and narrow barrier islands with hurricane-driven wind and wave conditions or morphology change after a storm (i.e. the end product: the post-storm morphology) rather than the processes during overwash and inundation itself (Donnelly et al, 2004; FitzGerald et al, 2007; McCall et al, 2010; Morton and Sallenger, 2003; Plant and Stockdon, 2012; Schupp et al, 2013; Williams, 2015).
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