Monitoring beach morphology changes and coastal sediment balance from Prachuap Khiri Khan, Thailand
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Abstract
Coastal erosion has been reported to be a severe geological hazard in some coastal areas along the Thailand coast. Whether the coastline has really suffered continuous erosion due to a long-term loss of natural sediment from beach zone or it occurred shortly after the human induced activities is still a moot question, which is being debated at present. This paper reviews our findings in a long-term systematic monitoring of beach morphology changes in the areas where severe erosion has been reported. Remotely-sensed data were integrated for evaluating a long-term sediment cycle. For short-term evaluation, we tested the yearly beach profiles and calculated the changes in the coastal area at Pranburi beach ridges plain and at the semi-enclosed bay of Prachuap Khiri Khan, western Thailand. As a result, foreshore profiles at Pranburi area show that the annual depositional rate is more than that of erosion. The northwardly coastal sediment movement at Pranburi area occurs only in rainy season and a yearly balance of sediment here shows a little change in sediment gained and lost. The Prachuap Khiri Khan Bay is in a long-term equilibrium. We conclude in general that a long-term sediment dynamics along both coastal segments are stable, but contain a complexity due to a local difference in shoreface configuration. Our result proves that both long-term and short-term systematic approaches in analyzing coastal sediment balance are essential to understand better the dynamics of natural sediment movement that may or may not be due to erosion.
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Copyright © 2008 Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University. Parts of an article can be photocopied or reproduced without prior written permission from the author(s), but due acknowledgments should be stated or cited accordingly.
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