Estimation of longshore and cross shore sediment transport on sandy macrotidal beaches of northern France. Coastal Sediments '11, 7th Int. Symp

In this paper, data on longshore and cross-shore sediment transport were obtained during six field experiments, on three sandy macrotidal barred beaches of northern France. This study is based on sediment trap experiments, following the method of Kraus (1987), and completed by wave and current measurements using a series of hydrodynamic instruments deployed across the intertidal zone. Results showed that longshore sediment transport increased with both wave height and mean flow, but no relation was found with wave angle which is probably due to the influence of tidal currents that interact with wave-induced longshore currents. Cross-shore sediment flux was generally higher than longshore flux, suggesting that shore-perpendicular sediment transport associated with wave oscillatory currents probably represents a major factor controlling the cross-shore migration of intertidal bars