Evaluation of beach nourishment performance in ba lang beach using numerical modelling

Abstract

The Ba Lang beach is one of the most beautiful beach in Nha Trang bay, the south Central of Vietnam. Unfortunately, it has been eroded in recent years due to a serious problem from excessive hot economic and tourism development, clearly evidenced by the retreat of the shoreline and slope steepening. Beach nourishment is a widely soft engineering measure used to protect beaches from coastal erosion as well as enhance recreational purposes. In this paper, the effectiveness of this method in limiting coastal erosion at Ba Lang beach will be investigated by using the numerical models, including hydrodynamic model (HD), wave model (SW), and sand transport model (ST). These numerical models were calibrated and compared with field measurements obtained at different points in the Ba Lang beach in December, 2016. All calibrations and comparisons show good agreement between the measured and computed results. The results indicate that beach nourishment has the considerable impacts on hydrodynamics and sediment transport of Ba Lang beach, but it is not a rational and primary tool for coast stabilization and protection.