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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Coastal Ocean Processes
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2024.1495918
This article is part of the Research Topic Climate Change and Human Impact: Assessing Vulnerability and Intensification of Hazards in Estuarine and Coastal Zones View all 8 articles

Non-uniform cumulative responses of beach sedimentary geomorphology to consecutive storms around a meso-macro tidal island

Provisionally accepted
  • 1 Second Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Hangzhou, China
  • 2 Haikou Marine Geological Survey Center, China Geological Survey, Haikou, Hainan Province, China
  • 3 Key Laboratory of Ocean Space Resource Management Technology, Marine Academy of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, Jiangsu Province, China
  • 4 Institute of Coastal Systems - Analysis and Modeling, Helmholtz Centre for Materials and Coastal Research (HZG), Geesthacht, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
  • 5 College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, Shanghai Municipality, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The response of beach sedimentary geomorphology to consecutive storms is a complex process, especially for beaches surrounding an island. Variations in coastal sedimentary landforms, dynamic environments and levels of development and utilization lead to non-uniformity in storm response, which may become more pronounced when influenced by continuous storms. This study focuses on the beaches around Weizhou Island to investigate this non-uniformity. Based on the topographic, surface sediment and hydrodynamic data collected on site before and after the consecutive typhoons (Typhoons Lionrock and Kompasu), the study examines the characteristics of beach geomorphology and surface sediment. The results show significant differences in the geomorphological responses between the four zones along the island. On the plane, the deposition degree of Zone I beach gradually weakened from west to east, and most areas of Zone III beach appeared in an alternating state of erosion and deposition. The beaches of Zone II and Zone IV showed the characteristics of dramatic changes in the northern and central beaches and relatively stable in the southern beaches. On the profile, the beach deformation area mainly occurs in the middle and upper parts of foreshore and berm. The response intensity of beaches in zone I is the weakest, the response intensity of beaches in zone III is the most intense, and the response intensity of beaches in zone II and zone IV is relatively close. However, the performance of beach sediments in different regions before and after continuous typhoons is less different. Except that the beach sediments in Zone I were mainly refined, the beach sediments in other zones of Weizhou Island were relatively coarse, and the sediments in the middle and upper parts of the foreshore were the coarsest, with the sorting being the worst. The different combinations of incident waves and storm surges during the typhoons are the primary factors that lead to various geomorphological responses in different zones. The antecedent beach status, distributions of rock and coral reefs, and anthropogenic activities further exacerbate these differences. This work can provide reference for island beach protection and management.

    Keywords: Meso-macro tidal beach, consecutive storms, Beach profile, sediment transport, coral reef, Weizhou Island

    Received: 13 Sep 2024; Accepted: 04 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Zhang, Guo, Shi, Chen, KUANG and Xia. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Lianqiang Shi, Second Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Hangzhou, China
    Wei Chen, Institute of Coastal Systems - Analysis and Modeling, Helmholtz Centre for Materials and Coastal Research (HZG), Geesthacht, 21502, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany

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