Beach Monitoring Reports
September 2023 Report -
Special report carried out following storm on 7-8 September
Date: Wednesday, 12th September 2023
Monitoring Team: Blake, Andrew, Natasha
Analysis & Report: David Bills-Thompson, PFCG Technical Officer and Data Co-ordinator
Commentary:
This monitoring session took place less than a week after the previous session in order to record any damage caused by the storm on 7-8 September.
Processing of the data available from the second mapping on 12/09/2023 indicates that the loss of sand level and dune recession at Post 9 is the worst we have had since measurements commenced in 2012.
See charts for post 9 and post 9B where the dune recession is shown as at least 2.5m. The Percentage Height 7m behind the post shows as -118%. At post 10, it appears that sand from the dune face has been spread over the rest of the beach down to the water's edge and has produced sand heights higher than readings at 6/09. However, the recession of the dune toe is a more serious concern than the beach height especially when the beach height might only be temporary until the dynamics come back into equilibrium.
The table on the left is derived from actual measurements of the beach sand elevation at typical points along East beach. The colours are used to provide an approximate indication of the sand level along the beach compared with historical levels. The range of sand levels and the values at which the colours change are shown in the colour legend at the bottom of the table.
The percentage represents the current sand height compared to the historical minimum and maximum heights ever measured at that location since 2013. These values are calculated from the measurements used to produce the profile charts that give additional information about the sand dynamics at that monitoring point.
These three columns give an overview of the sand level now, how it has changed since the previous measurement and how it compares to last year's results.
A positive number in a red square is usually not a concern but if the number is negative, it indicates that a new low sand level has been detected and further consideration of all the data at that point should be investigated.
More information
Please contact us if you would like more detailed information.
We can provide:
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spread sheets of all data
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photos for each monthly measurement.