Beach recovery from extreme storm activity during the 2013/14 winter along the Atlantic coast of Europe

Guillaume Dodet (1) , Bruno Castelle (2) , Gerd Masselink (3) , Tim Scott (3) , Mark Davidson (3) , France Floc'H (4) , Derek Jackson (5) , Serge S. Suanez (1)

1 LETG - Brest - Littoral, Environnement, Télédétection, Géomatique
2 EPOC - Environnements et Paléoenvironnements OCéaniques
3 SBMS - School of Biological and Marine Science
4 LGO - Laboratoire Géosciences Océan
5 Centre for Coastal and Marine Research [Coleraine]

The storm sequence of the 2013/14 winter left many beaches along the Atlantic coast of Europe in their most eroded state for decades. Understanding how beaches recover from such extreme events is essential for coastal managers, especially in light of potential regional increases in storminess due to climate change. Here we analyze a unique dataset of decadal beach morphological changes along the west coast of Europe to investigate the post‐2013/14‐winter recovery. We show that the recovery signatureis site‐specific and multi‐annual, with one studied beach fully recovered after two years, and the others only partially recovered after four years. During the recovery phase, winter waves primarily control the timescales of beach recovery, as energetic winter conditions stall the recovery process while moderate winter conditions accelerate it. This inter‐annual variability is well correlated with climate indices. On exposed beaches, an equilibrium model showed significant skill in reproducing the post‐storm recovery and thus can be used to investigate the recovery process in more details.

Domaines: Géomorphologie; Sciences de l'environnement

Guillaume Dodet, Bruno Castelle, Gerd Masselink, Tim Scott, Mark Davidson, et al.. Beach recovery from extreme storm activity during the 2013/14 winter along the Atlantic coast of Europe. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 2019, 44 (1), pp.393-401. ⟨10.1002/esp.4500⟩. ⟨hal-01870762⟩