Prediction of Shoreline Evolution. Reliability of a General Model for the Mixed Beach Case
Giuseppe Roberto Tomasicchio, Antonio Francone, David Simmonds, Felice D′Alessandro, Ferdinando Frega
Abstract
In the present paper, after a sensitivity analysis, the calibration and verification of a novel morphodynamic model have been conducted based on a high-quality field experiment data base. The morphodynamic model includes a general formula to predict longshore transport and associated coastal morphology over short- and long-term time scales. With respect to the majority of the existing one-line models, which address sandy coastline evolution, the proposed General Shoreline beach model (GSb) is suitable for estimation of shoreline change at a coastal mound made of non-cohesive sediment grains/units as sand, gravel, cobbles, shingle and rock. In order to verify the reliability of the GSb model, a comparison between observed and calculated shorelines in the presence of a temporary groyne deployed at a mixed beach has been performed. The results show that GSb gives a good agreement between observations and predictions, well reproducing the coastal evolution.