Barrier Landscape

Synonym: Bar landscape

This is a general term for the landscape comprising elongated depositional landforms at the outer margin of a coastal beach formed by waves and marine currents. A bar is composed of sand or gravel mixed with shell fragments and other materials. Its top is generally above the sea surface. Bars can be several kilometres long, hundreds of metres wide and several metres above sea level. They can be categorised into offshore bars, bay bars, tombolos and sand spits based on the location of deposition. According to the coastal topography, sources of depositional materials and the wave action and direction, bars can be divided into arc-shaped bars, circular bars and hook-shaped bars. Bars reflect a bay environment with abundant sand subject to waves from a fixed direction. In China, there are often different types of bars at the outer margin of coastal beaches (Fig. 10).

Fig. 10

Barrier landscape