Erosion and Accretion of a Placer Mining Beach of SW Indian Coast
The erosion/accretion pattern in a placer mining beach on the southwest Indian coast was monitored for five years to study the role of different driving forces. The beach has maximum width during the fair weather months and least in the rough monsoon months. Apart from hydrodynamic processes, sand mining and presence of sea wall are found to be the driving forces for erosion/accretion. Impact of sand mining is not felt on the beach when the mining is within an optimum level, equivalent to the natural replenishment. It is concluded that, though sand mining will cause erosion in the innershelf, the time taken for a measurable impact can be long if the mining volumes are much less than the annual volume changes.
Keywords: SW Indian coast; beach erosion; beach volume changes; driving forces of beach processes; littoral environmental characteristics; placer mining
Document Type: Research Article
Affiliations: Centre for Earth Science Studies, Trivandrum, Kerala, India
Publication date: 01 April 2008
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