<p>The continuous need for beach nourishment requires a detailed understanding of the sediment transport characteristics at the shelf borrow sites, to assess their recovery rate and to evaluate the long-term sustainability of these operations.&#160;</p><p>The main objective of this work is to assess sediment transport conditions at an inner shelf borrow site exploited to nourish a beach located at the updrift boundary of the same sedimentary cell (Belharucas, Albufeira, south coast of Portugal).</p><p>The work is supported by a sand tracer experiment, where 600 kg of coated sand with fluorescent ink was deposited (August 2020) by divers at 11 m depth (referred to the mean sea level). Periodic sediment sampling using a Van Veen grab was performed using an adaptative sampling grid that accounted for tracer&#8217;s dispersion trough time. The samples were washed and dried in laboratory and tagged particles were automatically identified using an automated image analysis procedure based on ultraviolet lighting.</p><p>Preliminary results show that sediment transport is dominated by a eastward component,probably related with the energetic events from the SW. Ongoing work relates the tracer&#8217;s displacement with ADCP (wave and current) data measured nearby the borrow site during the experiment.</p><p>&#160;</p><p>The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support FCT through project UIDB/50019/2020 &#8211; IDL and ECOEXA project (MAR-01.04.02-FEAMP-0016).</p><p>&#160;</p><p>&#160;</p>
Conceptualising and mapping coupled estuary, coast and inner shelf sediment systems
