GenCade:Sediment Sources and Sinks

Sources and Sinks

In GenCade, sediment may be added or taken away from the coastal area through sources or sinks, respectively, creating a shoreline response. In the GenCade interface this feature will appear under Bypass Event. Common sediment sources are erosion of cliffs, bluffs, and dunes; beach nourishment, including placement of dredged material; wind-blown sand; river-transported sediment; and onshore transport of material from deeper water. Common sediment sinks are wind-blown sand; dredging; barrier-island overwash; and offshore transport of material to deeper water. Thus, certain processes may act both as a source and a sink for the coast, depending on the particular conditions. In GenCade, an arbitrary number of sources and sinks may be specified having varying locations in space, different magnitudes and associated timing.

An example of an application where a sediment source term could be applied as an input to GenCade is for a coastal engineering application where there is a dedicated fixed sediment bypassing facility that is pumping sediment across an inlet at approximately a constant rate. In this case, a bypassing term would be input as a constant rate ($m^{3}/$/hr or CY/hr) over the duration of the simulation. This would function similar to a beach fill, but is input differently than a beach fill because beach fills are input as an increase in berm width.

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