Innovative Sand Groin Beach Nourishment With Environmental, Protective, And Recreational Purposes

This paper presents a 3-D experimental investigation (scale: 1 to 50) carried out to reproduce the short-term evolution of beach nourishment with two equally sized (15,000 m(3)) but differently shaped disposals: (1) two sandy groins, representing localized nourishments, and (2) a distributed nourishment. The aims are to investigate the short-term planform and profile evolution for the two cases, under the wave forcing of typical Adriatic Sea (Italy) storms and to compare the experimental results with a 2-D horizontal (2-DH) numerical model (XBeach). The "sand groins" nourishment, which is needed to mitigate erosion, evolved into a dune-lagoon system that makes the environment more attractive and is an appealing prospect for tourism.