Morphological Response of a Macrotidal Embayed Beach, Porsmilin, France

Morphodynamics of sandy, macrotidal, embayed beaches is complex because of the numerous physical processes interacting at the same location over a wide range of temporal scales. As most of these processes are controlled by beach morphology, dynamic feedbacks are generally observed between hydro- and morphodynamics. Investigating short-term processes is essential in order to improve long term morphological prediction. A key question is to understand how beach slope reacts to forcing conditions, in particular the response time of the beach profile, how long the transient state lasts. This study deals with the spatial and temporal responses of beach morphology to varying incident conditions. Here we report main observations, preliminary results and on-going investigations on the DYNATREZ1 field campaign, which was conducted in the framework of the National Observation Service Dynalit. Beach profiles are shown to adapt rapidly to forcing conditions, within two days, with more intense variations observed in the high tide swash zone. The presence of infragravity waves and their dissipation on the beach is highlighted. It is likely that the very large variability in beach slope observed over a single neap-spring cycle is responsible for the accordingly large variability in wave skewness, asymmetry and breaking processes, and thus in sediment fluxes and morphological changes.