Cross-shore transport
Cross-shore transport refers to the cumulative movement of beach and nearshore sand perpendicular to the shore by the combined action of tides, wind and waves, and the shore-perpendicular currents produced by them. These forces usually result in an almost continuous movement of sand either in suspension in the water column or in flows at the surface of the seafloor. This occurs in a complex, three-dimensional pattern, varying rapidly with time. At any moment, some sand in the area of interest will have an onshore component while other sand is moving generally offshore. The separation of the total transport into components parallel and perpendicular to the shore is artificial and is done as a convenience leading to a simpler understanding of a very complex environment (see entry on Longshore Sediment Transport for shoreparallel transport).
Cross-shore transport has been well studied because of its importance to beach erosion. Unlike longshore transport, which is...
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Cross-references
Beach Erosion
Coastal Processes (see Beach Processes)
Cross-Shore Variation in Sediment Size Distribution
Depth of Closure on Sandy Coasts
Dynamic Equilibrium of Beaches
Erosion Processes
Numerical Modeling
Profiling, Beach
Waves
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Seymour, R.J. (2005). Cross-Shore Sediment Transport. In: Schwartz, M.L. (eds) Encyclopedia of Coastal Science. Encyclopedia of Earth Science Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-3880-1_104
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