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Empirical Equilibrium Beach Profiles Along the Eastern Tombolo of Giens

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Abstract

Beaches along the eastern branch of the Giens double tombolo are subject to coastal erosion. Prediction of the behavior of the beach profile configuration in response to natural and anthropogenic changes using the concept of equilibrium beach profile (EBP) could be useful in finding the most suitable measure to address the erosion problem. Field investigation data of 11 beaches along the eastern tombolo were supplied for this study, and a nonlinear fitting technique was applied to estimate the best parameter values of seven empirical formulations of the relevant EBP. All of the observed beach profiles could be described by a single function, but a single EBP was inadequate to represent all of the beach profiles observed. The variation found could be explained in terms of longshore variation of bathymetry, sediment size, and wave parameters. Analysis of the validity of the EBPs revealed that a representative EBP of each beach is governed by different equilibrium parameters.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to IGN, EGB, EOL, CETMEF, IFREMER, SHOM, and ECMWF for the kindly provided measured data. We warmly thank Assoc. Prof. Dr. Wang Gang in Hohai University, Nanjing, China, for his comments. We are also thankful to several anonymous reviewers for helpful reviews and discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. SEATECH, University of Toulon, 83162, La Valette-du-Var, France

    Minh Tuan Vu & Yves Lacroix

  2. University of Transport and Communications, Hanoi, 100000, Vietnam

    Minh Tuan Vu & Viet Thanh Nguyen

  3. MEMOCS, Università Degli Studi dell’Aquila, 67100, L’Aquila, Italy

    Yves Lacroix

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  1. Minh Tuan Vu
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  2. Yves Lacroix
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  3. Viet Thanh Nguyen
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Correspondence to Minh Tuan Vu.

Additional information

This work was financially supported by the 911 Project of Vietnam International Education Development, Ministry of Education and Training, Vietnam.

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Vu, M.T., Lacroix, Y. & Nguyen, V.T. Empirical Equilibrium Beach Profiles Along the Eastern Tombolo of Giens. J. Marine. Sci. Appl. 17, 241–253 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11804-018-0027-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11804-018-0027-3

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