Deltaressystems design and analysis tools

Cross-shore profile development

An increasing number of people live and work in coastal areas. the natural environment makes it an attractive place to settle. The coastal areas are also essential for the worlds industries, as they largely depend on the sea transport routes. This results in an expansion of urban and industrial developments along the coast. Consequently, questions will emerge with respect to safety, recreation, urban planning, port design and ecological impacts of human induced changes.

Coastlines are dynamic systems requiring state-of-art models to assess coast related questions. This holds especially for ‘soft’ coastlines like beaches which mainly consist of sediments. The cross-shore profiles constantly change as a result of varying hydrodynamic conditions.

These profile changes have been studied by Deltares in a wide variety of research and engineering projects. On the basis of this experience the cross-shore profile model UNIBEST-TC has been developed. This model simulates profile development for normal and extreme conditions. This includes the erosion processes during storm conditions as well as the more gentle accreting processes during normal conditions.

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