Measurements and modelling of bed stress and suspended sediment over a coastal sandy bed

Abstract: Sediment processes of entrainment, transport and deposition are largely controlled by the bed shear stress produced by the hydrodynamic conditions. In this study co-located measurements of hydrodynamics and suspended sediments are presented and analysed from data collected at Sea Palling, UK, a sandy coastal region protected by nearshore parallel breakwaters. A parametric formulation for bottom stress provided both wave and current stress components which showed that waves are the dominant factor. These stresses were later used to perform reference concentration prediction which showed a clear underestimation under low wave activity probably due to advection processes but good agreement for the more intense wave events. Considering the uncertainties of the input data the empirical/parametric models used in the present study successfully reproduce the main properties of the stress and the suspended sediments under sandy beach conditions.