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Mitigation Measures for Beach Erosion and Rip Current

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 290 Kim, K.-H., et al.

Mitigation Measures for Beach Erosion and Rip Current

Kyu-Han Kim†, Sungwon Shin‡, and Agnes Y.W. Widayati†

†Dept. of Civil & Environmental ‡ Dept. of Energy Resources and Plant

Engineering, Kwandong University, Engineering, Kwandong University,
Gangneung, Ganwon-do 210-701, Korea Gangneung, Ganwon-do 210-701, Korea
kkhkim@kd.ac.kr sungwshin@kd.ac.kr www.cerf-jcr.org
agnes_youleea@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT

Kim, K.-H., Shin, S., Widayati, A.Y.W., 2013. Mitigation Measures for Beach Erosion and Rip Current In: Conley,
D.C., Masselink, G., Russell, P.E. and O’Hare, T.J. (eds.), Proceedings 12th International Coastal Symposium
(Plymouth, England), Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 65, pp. 290-295, ISSN 0749-0208.
www.JCRonline.org
Korea has achieved both economical and socio-cultural developments in recent years, and in the midst of these changes,
the issue of beach erosion has been recognized as one of the most important and controversial coastal problems in the
country. Hence coastal protection is required which they have to be designed, constructed and maintained efficiently
(Pilarczyk and Zeidler, 1996). This case study on beach erosion was conducted at Haeundae Beach in Busan, located in
the south coast of Korea. Haeundae Beach is regarded as the most popular and beautiful urban beach in Korea. One of
the main purposes of this study is to take comprehensive countermeasures to mitigate the beach erosion problem at
Haeundae Beach. The historical investigations, field observations, laboratory experiments, and numerical simulations
were conducted to understand the problems and to obtain solutions for countermeasures. The laboratory experiments of
3D hydraulic model tests qualitatively reproduced erosion patterns and rip currents that were shown in numerical
simulations. The results of laboratory experiments showed improvements in the countermeasure plan using both beach
nourishment and submerged breakwaters from erosion.

ADDITIONAL INDEX WORDS: beach erosion; countermeasure plan; beach nourishment; submerged breakwater;
hydraulic model test; laboratory experiments; field observations; numerical simulations

INTRODUCTION Kim et al (2011; 2012) introduced a newly designed artificial reef

block and proved its effectiveness using both laboratory
Haeundae Beach, one of the most famous beaches in South experiments and numerical simulations. Liou et al (2009) studied
Korea, is highly valued for relaxation, sports and leisure. And like the causes of beach erosion at Kangnan Coas, Taiwan, and
other beaches in Korea, Haeundae beach has contributed to suggested submerged detached breakwater as a countermeasure
disaster prevention and the maintenance of coastal ecosystem. plan in that area. Yang et al (2010) also investigated carefully
However, beach erosion problem has begun to arise since the about the beach erosion problems in the coast of Taiwan and tried
1990s in Korea. Major causes of the beach erosion are to figure out the strategy of soft solutions in conjunction with hard
construction of harbor facilities or fishing ports, revetment, coastal structures based on the site studies with field observations.
roads, aggregate gatherings nearby an estuary and hinterland Hsu et al (2008) reviewed countermeasures against beach
development. erosion in the coast of Taiwan. They concluded that the various
The beach erosion in Haeundae has also become a major methods including soft solutions and hard structures should be
concern to Korea government and engineers. In order to solve the considered based on the study of hydrodynamics, sediment
problem, the case study was conducted to analyze and investigate transport, and physiographic features for each site.
the causes of erosion and to suggest a countermeasure plan to
protect the beach area.
Coastal structures have been considered as the most widely-
used method for beach erosion control. Various techniques have
been implemented for shoreline protection including hard-
structural method, soft-structural method, and the combination of
hard-structural method and soft-structural method.
Pilarczyk (2003) summarized alternative systems for preventing
beach erosion. He described various methods for shore
stabilization and beach erosion control and suggested artificial
reefs, geosystems (geotubes, geocontatiners, geocurtains), and so
on. Kim et al (2008) showed effectiveness of submerged
breakwater comprehensive method for beach erosion control. Also,

____________________
DOI: 10.2112/SI65-050.1 received 07 December 2012; accepted 06 Figure 1. Aerial photographs of Haeundae Beach, south coast of
March 2013. Korea.
© Coastal Education & Research Foundation 2013

Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 65, 2013

 Mitigation Measures for Beach Erosion and Rip Current
(a) (b)
Figure 2. Historical records of shoreline change in Haeundae
Beach. (a) Joseon Hotel area (west side). (b) Mipo area(east
side)
Therefore, the previous studies prove that the site specific study
should be conducted prior to select which countermeasure plan is
effective in that area.
The study area for this research is in Haeundae Beach located at
the eastern part of Busan in the south coast of Korea as shown in
Figure 1. The aerial photographs in Figure 1 show the City of
Busan in the south coast of Korea (left), and Haeundae Beach
(right) located in Busan.
A lot of visitors, both domestic and international, visit this area
every year especially in summer season. There are many hotels
and public recreational facilities in front of the beach area.
Because of its easy access from downtown and the beautiful beach,
Haeundae Beach is always busy in various beach festivals and
tourism. The beach is well known for one of the finest beaches
with its great view, beautiful coast line, white sand, green
environment, and other excellent facilities.
However, beach erosion has occurred gradually and Korean
government has been trying to preserve the beach by applying
small-scaled beach nourishment programs to prevent beach
erosion for past 20 years and more. This effort has been
implemented annually to restore the sandy beach in Haeundae.
Nevertheless, the beach area still has experienced the erosion
problem. Therefore, the implementation of monitoring program
for the coastal area coupled with wave and other environmental
measurements is needed (Dean and Dalrymple, 2002) to deal with
beach erosion problems
Figure 4. Bathymetry survey result using Side Scan SONAR
(SSS). SSS can detect sand ripples.
Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 65, 2013
291
(a) (b)
(c) (d)
Figure 3. Seasonal change of shoreline in Haeundae Beach.
Joseon Hotel area (west side) in summer (a) and winter (c);
Mipo area (east side) in summer (b) and winter (d)
Figure 2 shows the aerial photographs of shoreline change
from 1947 to 2007 in Haeundae Beach with the consideration of
tide level correction. The figures show that there are significant
changes in shoreline due to the erosion phenomena, both in the
east (right figure) and the west side (left figure) of Haeundae
Beach.
Before 1970, Haeundae Beach remained undeveloped. The
government of South Korea started to develop this area around
1970 with reclamation, road construction, and other regional
developments to build this area a famous tourist attraction site in
Korea. Unfortunately, the development projects were conducted
without any consideration of comprehensive effects on the coast
(Kim et. al, 2008). The beach was rapidly eroded starting with the
1970s. Major causes of its beach erosion are construction of
harbor facilities or fishing ports, revetment, coastal roads,
aggregate gatherings nearby an estuary and hinterland
development. Among these, the construction of coastal roads is
considered the major factor causing beach erosion. In Figure 2,
after 1995, beach erosion rate seems to be decreased. However,
this is because of small-scaled beach nourishment without the site
study and seasonal shoreline change is still remained. Therefore,
the beach erosion problem in this site is not solved yet.
Like any other beaches facing beach erosion in the world, the
erosion of Haeundae Beach could bring damage in tourism
business and shoreline ecosystem. Therefore, arrangement and
evaluation of beach erosion control and countermeasure plan are
inevitable to maintain the coast the most beneficial environment.
Another problem occurred in Haeundae Beach is the erosion
occurred in summer and winter seasons due to wave-induced
currents. During summer, the wave-induced currents are created at
the west of Joseon Hotel and move to the east of Haeundae Beach
near Mipo Harbor. The result of this phenomenon is shown in
Figure 3. In the contrary, during winter, the wave-induced currents
are generated at the east near Mipo Harbor, causing erosion
problem in Mipo area and deposition near Joseon Hotel.
These phenomena have also been the major problems that
need to be handled. Investigation and monitoring program should
be executed so that the countermeasure plan could be
implemented to minimize the erosion in both regions.
 292 Kim, K.-H., et al.
Figure 5. Bathymetry survey result of Haeundae Beach using
MBES. (A) Relatively mild slope; (B) complicated bathymetry
with sand and rocks.
INVESTIGATION AND ANALYSIS METHOD
Field Investigation and Bathymetric Survey
Field investigation and hydraulic model tests were conducted to
arrange and evaluate the optimal beach erosion control method in
Haeundae Beach. In this field investigation, bathymetric survey
was also conducted using Side Scan SONAR and Multibeam Echo
Sounder (MBES).
Side Scan SONAR (Sound Navigation and Ranging) was used
for mapping the bottom topography identifying the bathymetric
features of Haeundae Beach (Figure 4).
Side-scan SONAR data for Haeundae Beach was obtained along
with the bathymetric data by using MBES, thus providing a
glimpse of the detailed information of the seabed. The basic
system of MBES is analyzing the return signal (echo) of its sound
energy that has bounced off the seafloor or other objects. The
(a)
(b)
Figure 6. Investigation sites estimating beach width (a) and
beach volume (b) of Haeundae Beach.
Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 65, 2013
-5.0cm -4.0cm -3.0cm -2.0cm -1.0cm 0.0cm 1.0cm 2.0cm 3.0cm 4.0cm 5.0cm
Wave Dir. : SSE
Time : after 6 hr
Contours Unit : cm
Figure 7. Results of 3D hydraulic model tests for topographical
change (Top: S direction in summer; Bottom: SSE direction in
winter).
changes in beach profile have been measured through a remote
control vessel that carries an echo sounder.
Figure 5 shows the result of bathymetry survey by using MBES.
Due to the higher resolution compared to Single Beam Echo
Souder, international Hydrographic Organization (IHO) suggests
that MBES be used for bathymetric survey with high resolution in
the area where the safe navigation of ship is important (IHO,
1998). Ryu et al (2011) also used MBES and successfully
obtained high resolution bottom topography.
In the west of Haeundae Beach, the bathymetric condition is
relatively mild, but complicated bathymetry with sand and rocks
took place in the middle and the east of the beach. It is known that
MBES provides the high quality digital information of ocean
bottom topography.
Beach Width and Volume of Haeundae Beach
In order to analyze the shoreline changes of Haeundae Beach,
the changes of its width and volume in the selected sites were
collected as shown in Figure 6. From these data, the tendency
value of shoreline change could be calculated.
According to the data, significant sand loss happened in the
west and east side of Haeundae Beach. The beach width near
Joseon hotel decreased for almost 46 % and 53% of decrease in
Mipo area.
For the percentage of beach volume, the volume decreased by
44% in the west and 30% in the east. These data showed that there
has been significant sand loss in Haeundae Beach.
3 Dimensional Hydraulic Model Test
Three-dimensional hydraulic model tests were conducted to
investigate beach profile based on various conditions. The basin
dimension is the width of 35m, the length of 27m, and the depth of
1.5m. This three-dimensional wave basin has 36 wave paddles
moving together and separately so that can generate both uni-
directional and multi-directional waves. The experiments were
 Mitigation Measures for Beach Erosion and Rip Current
Table 1. Countermeasure plans for Haeundae Beach.
Wave
Case Countermeasure plan
direction
1 Before Construction S
2 Before Construction SSE
3 Beach Nourishment S
4 Beach Nourishment SSE
5 Beach Nourishment and Submerged S
Breakwaters
6 Beach Nourishment and Submerged SSE
Breakwaters
carried out in 1/100 scale to cover whole area of the pocket beach.
The study area for three-dimensional hydraulic model test was
approximately 3.5 km in length and 1.5 km in width. The major
high waves come from S(south) direction in summer, and
SSE(south-south-east) direction in the winter that these two wave
directions were used in this test as wave direction parameters. The
experiments were conducted in both fixed bed and movable bed.
Dye tests were conducted in the fixed bed experiment to trace and
understand the rip currents patterns. Topographic changes were
investigated in different countermeasures through the movable bed
experiments. This study only shows the results of movable bed
experiment because the effects of the countermeasure on
topographical changes are the main interest.
The experiments were carried out under S and SSE directions of
incident waves, which are the dominant wave directions in
summer and winter at the study area. The significant wave heights
(Hs) in both S and SSE directions were 2.5 m and the significant
wave periods (Ts) were 10 seconds in prototype scale. Upper
panel of Figure 7 shows the result of topographical change in
summer season with S direction. The experimental result shows
the occurrence of erosion in the west and sand deposition in the
east of Haeundae Beach. Lower panel of Figure 7 shows the result
of topographical change in winter with SSE wave direction. The
result shows the erosion in the east and the sand deposition in the
west. These results show similar trend to the photographs as
shown in Figure 3. From the figures, we assume the cause of
erosion is the wave-induced currents that were generated in front
Wave Dir. : S
Vectors scale
150cm/s300cm/s
Figure 8. Numerical model results of wave-induced current
(Top: S direction in summer; Bottom: SSE direction in winter).
Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 65, 2013
293
Figure 9. Beach erosion countermeasure plan for Haeundae
Beach .
of Haeundae Beach.
From the experimental results with the existing condition, the
sediment transport direction at Haeundae Beach tends to alternate
from one end to the other in the pocket beach area. Therefore, the
rip currents that move sediments offshore direction at both ends of
the pocket beach should be reduced using countermeasures (Kim,
et al., 2008).
Numerical simulations
Two-dimensional horizontal flux model was used to predict
longshore and rip currents with respect to the seasonal change of
wave direction. The model developed by Sawaragi, et al. (1990) is
capable of predicting wave information, wave-induced currents,
and sediment transport. The input wave conditions were the same
with hydraulic model tests. The computation area covers
approximate length of 3.5 km and width of 1.5 km. The major
high waves in summer come from S direction and SSE direction in
the winter. Therefore, those 2 wave directions were used as the
input condition in the model.
Figure 8 shows the numerical model results of wave-induced
current direction before a beach erosion countermeasure. In
summer, the longshore currents were developed from the west to
the east, generating beach erosion mostly near Joseon Hotel as
shown in Figure 8. At this moment, rip currents occur near Mipo
Beach and the weakened currents flow back to the beach. In
winter, the longshore currents near the west of Joseon Hotel are
weaker but stronger rip currents occur near the east of Mipo. Thus,
the result of the model explains the reason of seasonal change in
shoreline at Haeundae Beach.
COUNTERMEASURE PLAN ANALYSIS
HAEUNDAE BEACH
The selection of countermeasures is supported by the field
investigation analysis and hydraulic experiment result. If the result
of the analysis proves optimal erosion prevention function of a
countermeasure, the countermeasure plan could be implemented.
The implementation of countermeasures should be monitored and
evaluated continuously with adaptive managements for sustainable
beach erosion control.
Figure 9 illustrates the proposed countermeasure plans of this
study. Case 3 and 4 in Table 1 are planned with beach
nourishment without submerged breakwaters. Case 5 and 6 are
planned with both beach nourishment and submerged breakwaters
in the west and east of Haeundae Beach.
 294 Kim, K.-H., et al.

Two upper panels of Figures 10 show the experimental results the erosion problem is the occurrence of longshore and rip
for countermeasure plan using beach nourishment alone as a beach currents, particularly in front of Mipo area (eastern area) and
erosion control. Compared with the existing condition, the Joseon Hotel area (western area). Field observations also showed
deposition was increased particularly in front of the beach. The that there were seasonal difference in beach erosion near Joseon
contour plots of bottom topography in both figures indicate rip and Mipo regions between summer and winter. It is because the
currents at the center of the beach in both cases. direction of wave induced currents differs from the wave direction
The experiment results for countermeasure plan using beach which alters upon seasons.
nourishment together with submerged breakwaters are shown in The wave induced currents swing at the sides of a sandy beach
two lower panels in Figure 10. The lengths of submerged and this phenomenon creates erosion. Simultaneously, some of the
breakwaters are 300 meters in the east and 200 meters in the west. swinging wave induced currents convert into rip currents due to
As shown in the figures, the experiments provided desirable the rip channel created by the ocean topography features in front
results in controlling beach erosion in terms of the shoreline of the beach. Considerable amount of sand is carried off by the rip
protection. Deposition happened in front of the beach with currents. Therefore, in order to control the rip currents at
reduction of erosion. However, rip currents still remained in both Haeundae Beach, the source of wave induced currents swinging at
figures even with an enhancement of the countermeasure plan for the sides of the beach needs to be eliminated.
beach erosion prevention. Rip currents, one of the factors of beach erosion, were
The hydraulic results of longshore and rip currents patterns reproduced in laboratory experiments and numerical simulations.
explain the erosion and deposition patterns from the numerical Laboratory experiment results indicate the countermeasure plan
model results. with beach nourishment and submerged breakwaters improved in
The experiment results in this study explain the seasonal change protecting the beach from erosion. Also rip currents were reduced
of longshore currents create erosion and accretion near Joseon with a countermeasure. Groin-type submerged breakwaters at both
Hotel and Mipo. Moreover, rip currents are generated by rip sides efficiently block longshore currents reducing the chance of
channel formed by complex bottom topography with sand and rip currents occurrence. Therefore, installation of groin-type
rocks facilitating sand transport in cross-shore direction. Therefore, submerged breakwaters at the sides of the beach in accompanied
in order to reduce the occurrence of rip currents, the source of with large-scale beach nourishments would minimize the rip
longshore currents in the west and the east should be blocked. channel, minimizing the swinging wave induced currents and the
Construction of groins in both sides and large-scale beach rip currents.
nourishment can minimize the erosion through the rip channel in
Haeundae Beach. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
CONCLUSIONS This research was partly supported by the RIC program of the
Ministry of Knowledge Economy of Korea, a Manpower
The historical studies, field observations, laboratory Development Program for Marine Energy by the Ministry of Land,
experiments (3D hydraulic model tests), and numerical Transport and Maritime Affairs (MLTM), and a grant (12-RTIP-
simulations were performed to understand and solve the erosion B01) from Regional Technology Innovation Program funded by
problem of Haeundae Beach located in Busan, South Korea. Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs of Korean
The major cause of rapid beach erosion in Haeundae Beach is government.
the regional development from the beginning of the 1970s. From
the investigations, the erosion in Haeundae Beach is caused by LITERATURE CITED
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-5.0cm -4.0cm -3.0cm -2.0cm -1.0cm 0.0cm 1.0cm 2.0cm 3.0cm 4.0cm 5.0cm
-5.0cm -4.0cm -3.0cm -2.0cm -1.0cm 0.0cm 1.0cm 2.0cm 3.0cm 4.0cm 5.0cm

Wave Dir. : S Wave Dir. : SSE

Time : after 6 hr Time : after 6 hr
Contours Unit : cm Contours Unit : cm

-5.0cm -4.0cm -3.0cm -2.0cm -1.0cm 0.0cm 1.0cm 2.0cm 3.0cm 4.0cm 5.0cm -5.0cm -4.0cm -3.0cm -2.0cm -1.0cm 0.0cm 1.0cm 2.0cm 3.0cm 4.0cm 5.0cm

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Time : after 6 hr Time : after 6 hr
Contours Unit : cm Contours Unit : cm

Figure 10. Results of 3D hydraulic model test for topographical change (Top left: case3; Top right: case 4; Bottom left: case 5; Bottom
right: case 6)

Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 65, 2013

 Mitigation Measures for Beach Erosion and Rip Current 295

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