Coastal Sediment Reference Review

Coastal References

Regional Sediment Management is an emerging concept. There is a lot of information relating to sediment management, however, this information is often difficult to find since it was not developed specifically for sediment management concerns. During a series of technical workshops held during the summer of 2003, regulators, reviewers, project proponents and CSMW members all agreed that it would be very useful if the Sediment Master Plan could assemble the technical information related to beach nourishment and regional sediment management and make that information easily available.

Towards that end, CSMW developed a plan to compile lists of relevant documents, and those results are presented herein. A Study Overview is available, the entire Literature Search Report can be downloaded, and the links specified below access topical sections within the report.

  • Beach Nourishment Projects - Known and available information on: the types and grain size distribution of sands that have been used for nourishment projects along California beaches; observed end results of nourishment projects; the basis for limitations placed on the percentage of allowable finer grained materials in nourishment projects. Includes any information gathered on existing grain size distributions at those beaches. Historic locations are also available on CSMWs spatial data website.
  • Coastal Erosion & Beach Nourishment Needs - Available and known beach nourishment needs along the entire California coast (locations, reasons, severity of need, and consequences); critical beaches that would benefit most from beach nourishment, and known erosion hot spots. This information has been updated through the release of theCalifornia Beach Erosion Assessment Survey 2010.
  • Coarse to Fines Ratio - "Rule of Thumb" - Studies assessing the 80/20 coarse-to-fines "rule-of-thumb" ratio, used by various regulatory agencies to determine whether potential source sands are appropriate for use on a given beach. Identifies the origin of the rule-of-thumb and nourishment projects where variances from the rule-of-thumb were allowed, including the basis for such variance(s).
  • Debris Basins - Compiles known information on debris basin locations, contacts, volumes, and cleanout frequencies. Efforts were focused outside of Ventura and LA Counties, since debris basins in those counties are already included within the SMP GIS system.
  • Offshore Sediments - Available information regarding the presence of fine-grained "mud belts", potential sand source areas, sandy and rocky bottom habitats in the offshore vicinity of potential beach nourishment locations.
  • Natural & Anthroprogenic Turbidity Plumes - Studies that investigate the transport and depositional fate of fine-grained materials associated with natural and anthropogenic turbidity plumes; what's currently known about the densities and duration of "natural" turbidity plumes, and similar information on plumes associated with beach nourishment or other sediment management activities. This information has been updated through CSMWs report "Sources, Dispersal and Fate of Fine Sediment Supplied to the California Coast", released in 2007.
  • Seasonal Sand Movement - Document known information (i.e., case studies, etc.) regarding the natural seasonal movement of sand from the beach to nearshore and back. This information has been updated by CSMW reports "Sand Budget for California's Major Littoral Cells" (2007) and "Littoral Cells, Sand Budgets and Beaches" (2006).

In 2008, CSMW entered these references and those compiled during preparation of various CSMW reports into a topical searchable database.