Tidal Inlet Dynamics and Relocation in Response to Artificial Breaching
Résumé
This chapter addresses the relations between inlet dynamics and
nearshore wave regime at a coastal lagoon in the Atlantic coast of Morocco. The
study of wave climate indicates a southward trend for the net annual longshore
sediment transport, which modifies previously reported conclusions fundamented
upon limited series of observations on waves and interpretation of the inlet geomorphology.
The snapshot images used here to characterize the morphodynamic
behavior of the inlet indicate that its mobility is driven essentially by the northward
component of the wave-borne longshore energy flux and transport, thus bearing no
direct relation with the net annual residue of longshore energy flux and sediment
transport; we interpret this as a result of contrasting effectiveness in early wave
energy dissipation induced by shoal fields populating the nearshore north and south
of the inlet. Moulay Bousselham inlet illustrates a case where geomorphological
interpretation of coastal features may be insufficient to support inferences on
coastal hydrodynamics.