Monitoring beach profile changes and modelling nourishment scenarios for Ratmalana beach

Abstract

Sri Lanka is an island nation endowed with a wide range of coastal resources, greatly contributing to the Gross Domestic Product. Coastal erosion is a major issue related to the beaches in Sri Lanka. In this regard, Ratmalana beach is critically important as a potential tourism destination due to its proximity to the capital city and the accessibility to a coastal railway station. To develop a beach as a tourist destination, it is importance to monitor the beach profile changes and find out the remedial measures for erosion prevention. For such a management plan, either hard or soft engineering solutions can be utilized. Out of the soft engineering solutions, the most reliable solution is beach nourishment. In this research, Ratmalana beach was regularly monitored and a numerical model was built by utilizing the public domain of XBeach to model the hydrodynamics in the area. Finally, two nourishment scenarios were modelled, and the optimum nourishment scenario is determined. Beach profile monitoring and calculated sand budget indicates that there is significant erosion during the stormy weather season. Based on grain size analysis, Ratmalana beach has a broad grain size distribution. According to the modelled nourishment scenarios, profile nourishment has shown better performance.