Aeolian transport is the wind-driven transport of sand at the beach and dunes. This transport is crucial in the restoration of dunes in between storms. Up to date, no accurate quantitative data on the amount of Aeolian sand flux is available at the Belgian coast. In order to assess the impact of Aeolian transport in the overall sediment budget and to derive quantitative relations between the amount of sand transported by wind and parameters describing the hydro-meteorological state, a series of field campaigns are scheduled.
Measurements will be performed over a number of fixed measurement stations aligned along and across the intertidal zone, aerial beach and embrio and foredune. Theywill provide accurate data of meteo-marine conditions, morphology, and wind-driven sand transport events. The experimental set-up consists of a monitoring station, which will provide time series of vegetation cover, shoreline position, fetch distances, surficial moisture content, wind speed and direction and transport processes. The horizontal and vertical variability of the event scale Aeolian sand transport is analyzed with 12 MWAC sand traps. Two saltiphones register the intensity and variations of grain impacts over time. Two meteo-masts, each with four anemometers and one wind vane, provide quantitative measurements of the wind flow at different locations on the beach. Surficial moisture is measured with a moisture sensor. The topography measurements are typically done with laser techniques.
Presence and status of vegetation, position of the waterline and the interface between the dry and wet beach will be documented at every experiment. Hereto, visual observations are combined with digital camera pictures, from which the data can be deducted. Some of these cameras (Argus system, © DELTARES) are already operational up to date (cf. ARGONAUTS Project) to monitor the beach. At other sites these will have to be newly installed. This system use the images taken at fix time intervals and landmarks to calibrate for distances and tilting resulting in quantitative estimations regarding the position of shoreline, submerged bars, nearshore bathymetry, beach elevation and vegetation. Eventually, a series of cameras could be installed at the top of the meteomast located at the top of the foredune or dike. The camera system captures qualitive data on weather and wave conditions and images of the cameras can be used to generate maps of fetch distances, moisture and supply-limiting parameters. Measurements of saturation of the beach will be performed to study the influence of moisture in the soil on aeolian transport.
Aeolian transport measurements will be as much as possible synchronised with underwater and swash zone measuring campaigns and surveys planned outside this project.
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