The Modified Bruun Rule Extended for Landward Transport

Abstract

The Bruun Rule provides a relationship between sea level rise and shoreline retreat and has been widely applied by the engineering and scientific communities to interpret shoreline changes and to plan for possible future increases in sea level rise rates. The Bruun Rule assumes that all sand removed from the upper profile is deposited offshore as sea level rises although overwash during storms and landward Aeolian transport clearly indicate otherwise. This article examines processes associated with sandy beach evolution in response to relative sea level rise and proposes a modified form of the Bruun Rule that considers the full range of parsing cross-shore transport, from completely seaward to completely landward, depending on the prevailing storm and surge conditions and whether there is a surplus or deficit of sand in the profile with respect to the equilibrium beach profile. A methodology is proposed that more appropriately represents the long-term processes and beach response. However, an improved quantitative understanding of landward transport is required for optimal application of the proposed method.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 13, 2013
Accession Number
ADA582930

Entities

People

  • J. D. Rosati
  • R. G. Dean
  • T. L. Walton

Organizations

  • United States Army Corps of Engineers

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Civil Engineering
  • Climate Change
  • Coastal Engineering
  • Coastal Regions
  • Engineering
  • Engineers
  • Geography
  • Offshore
  • Regions
  • Ridges
  • Sea Level
  • Sea Level Rise
  • Shores
  • Storm Surges
  • Topography
  • United States

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Coastal Oceanography
  • Economics
  • Information Retrieval