Spatial and temporal correlation between beach and wave processes: implications for bar–berm sediment transition

Abstract

Investigation of a beach and its wave conditions is highly requisite for understanding the physical processes in a coast. This study composes spatial and temporal correlation between beach and nearshore processes along the extensive sandy beach of Nagapattinam coast, southeast peninsular India. The data collection includes beach profile, wave data, and intertidal sediment samples for 2 years from January 2011 to January 2013. The field data revealed significant variability in beach and wave morphology during the northeast (NE) and southwest (SW) monsoon. However, the beach has been stabilized by the reworking of sediment distribution during the calm period. The changes in grain sorting and longshore sediment transport serve as a clear evidence of the sediment migration that persevered between foreshore and nearshore regions. The Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) analysis and Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA) were utilized to investigate the spatial and temporal linkages between beach and nearshore criterions. The outcome of the multivariate analysis unveiled that the seasonal variations in the wave climate tends to influence the bar – berm sediment transition that is discerned in the coast.

Keywords

beach / nearshore / sandbar / grain size / empirical orthogonal function / canonical correlation analysis

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Acknowledgement

The first author is thankful to Mr. P. Vincent Jayaraj, Mr. George Udayaraj, Mr. Duraisamy and Mr. Pushparaj for their effective support during the field survey and Mrs. A. Xavier Leema rose, Mrs. F. Suganya Jenifer, and Ms. K. Shree Purnima for their help in developing the manuscript.

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2017 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg