Different responses of two adjacent artificial beaches to Typhoon Hato in Zhuhai, China.

Major differences in beach erosion between two neighboring artificial beaches Xiangluwan Beach (XL beach) and Meiliwan Beach (ML beach) in Zhuhai, China, were studied after Super Typhoon Hato. In this study, a fully nonlinear Boussinesq wave model (FUNWAVE)-Total Variation Diminishing (TVD) was used to distinguish the main impact factors, their relative contributions, and the hydrodynamic mechanisms underlying the different beach responses. Results show that compared to the ML beach, the main reason for the relatively weak erosion on Xiangluwan (XL) beach was the smaller beach berm height (accounting for approximately 75.9% of the erosion response). Regarding the beach with a higher berm, the stronger wave-induced undertow flow, along with the higher sediment concentration, led to a higher offshore sediment transport flux, resulting in more severe erosion relative to the beach with a smaller berm height. The second most important reason explaining the weak erosion on XL beach was the absence of seawalls (accounting for approximately 17.9% of the erosion response). Wave reflection induced by the seawall could cause higher suspended sediment concentration, resulting in a toe scouring near the seawall. The offshore submerged breakwater protected XL beach slightly (accounting for approximately 6.1% of the erosion response). Due to the higher water level induced by storm surge, most of the wave energy could penetrate through the submerged breakwater. The effect of the larger berm width of XL beach was negligible. Compared to the beach with a larger berm width, the erosion/deposition regions in the beach with a narrower berm width showed shoreward migration, without significant changes in the erosion/deposition extent. Despite of this, the larger berm width could reduce the wave energy reaching the shoreline. This study of the storm stability of artificial beaches may be applied to beach restoration design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]