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Tidal Inlet Dynamics and Relocation in Response to Artificial Breaching

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Sediment Fluxes in Coastal Areas

Part of the book series: Coastal Research Library ((COASTALRL,volume 10))

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Abstract

This chapter addresses the relations between inlet dynamics and nearshore wave regime at a coastal lagoon in the Atlantic coast of Morocco. The study of wave climate indicates a southward trend for the net annual longshore sediment transport, which modifies previously reported conclusions fundamented upon limited series of observations on waves and interpretation of the inlet geomorphology. The snapshot images used here to characterize the morphodynamic behavior of the inlet indicate that its mobility is driven essentially by the northward component of the wave-borne longshore energy flux and transport, thus bearing no direct relation with the net annual residue of longshore energy flux and sediment transport; we interpret this as a result of contrasting effectiveness in early wave energy dissipation induced by shoal fields populating the nearshore north and south of the inlet. Moulay Bousselham inlet illustrates a case where geomorphological interpretation of coastal features may be insufficient to support inferences on coastal hydrodynamics.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Cooperation GRICES-Portugal/CNRST-Maroc and LAGMAR Programme (REMER). The authors are grateful to Bruno Castelle (Bordeaux 1 University) and Hakkou Rachid (Kenitra, Ibnou Tofail University) for information on the NOAA dataset and to Puertos de Estado (España) for making available the WASA wave data offshore Morocco.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environment – Integrated Coastal Zone Management, Department of Geology, Faculty of Sciences, UFR: ST/18/05, El Jadida, Morocco

    Bendahhou Zourarah, Asmae Mhamdi Alaoui & Khalid Mehdi

  2. Faculté des Sciences, Laboratoire des Geosciences Marines et Sciences du Sol (Unité associée CNRST-URAC 45), El Jadida, Morocco

    Bendahhou Zourarah, Asmae Mhamdi Alaoui & Khalid Mehdi

  3. Centro e Departamento de Geologia, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal

    César Andrade & Maria da Conceição Freitas

  4. Institut de Géographie et d’Aménagement Régional de l’Université de Nantes, Géolittomer, LETG UMR 6554-CNRS, Nantes Cedex 3, France

    Mohamed Maanan & Marc Robin

  5. LATTEX/IDL, Departamento de Geologia, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal

    Rui Taborda

Authors
  1. Bendahhou Zourarah
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  2. César Andrade
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  7. Khalid Mehdi
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  8. Marc Robin
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Correspondence to Bendahhou Zourarah .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut de Géographie et d'Aménagement Régional de l'Université de Nantes, Géolittomer, LETG UMR 6554-CNRS, Nantes Cedex 3, France

    Mohamed Maanan

  2. Institut de Géographie et d'Aménagement Régional de l'Université de Nantes, Géolittomer, LETG UMR 6554-CNRS, Nantes Cedex 3, France

    Marc Robin

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Zourarah, B. et al. (2015). Tidal Inlet Dynamics and Relocation in Response to Artificial Breaching. In: Maanan, M., Robin, M. (eds) Sediment Fluxes in Coastal Areas. Coastal Research Library, vol 10. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9260-8_8

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