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Littoral Drift and Coastline Evolution on Mixed Sand and Gravel Coasts

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Morphodynamics of Mediterranean Mixed Sand and Gravel Coasts

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Earth Sciences ((BRIEFSEARTH))

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Abstract

The evolution of the coastline is mainly driven by the gradients in the longshore sediment transport (LST). These gradients are mostly influenced by the incoming waves and the morphology of the coastline. Traditionally, the coastline is assumed to be quasi-rectilinear, and the formulations are not valid for curved shorelines. This chapter presents a new expression that not only accounts for the curvature of the shoreline but also includes the variability of the sediment size that is typically found along Mediterranean coasts. It is later applied to the study sites described in Chap. 2, and the relation between LST trends and coastline evolution is analyzed and discussed for both sites.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Projects CTM2012-32439 and BIA2015-65598-P). The second author was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Research Contract BES-2013-062617 and Mobility Grant EEBB-I-16-11009). The authors are indebted to Gerd Masselink for his valuable suggestions and comments. Prof. Baquerizo is also acknowledged for helping in the development the LST expression for curvilinear coasts. We also thank Fátima Pereira for her support creating the bathymetric scenarios of Carchuna Beach and Cristóbal Rodríguez-Delgado for his assistance with the bathymetric data processing of Playa Granada.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Andalusian Institute for Earth System Research, University of Granada, Granada, Spain

    Miguel Ortega-Sánchez, Rafael J. Bergillos & Miguel A. Losada

  2. Department of Aerospace Engineering and Fluid Mechanics, University of Seville, Seville, Spain

    Alejandro López-Ruiz

Authors
  1. Miguel Ortega-Sánchez
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  2. Rafael J. Bergillos
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  3. Alejandro López-Ruiz
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  4. Miguel A. Losada
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Correspondence to Miguel Ortega-Sánchez .

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Ortega-Sánchez, M., Bergillos, R.J., López-Ruiz, A., Losada, M.A. (2017). Littoral Drift and Coastline Evolution on Mixed Sand and Gravel Coasts. In: Morphodynamics of Mediterranean Mixed Sand and Gravel Coasts. SpringerBriefs in Earth Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52440-5_4

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