Bars/troughs dynamics and evolution trend of the La Cinta beach (San Teodoro OT) - NE Sardinia

Batzella T. (*), Pusceddu N. (*), Kalb C. (*), Ferraro F. (*), Ibba A. (*) & De Muro S. (*)
(*) OCEANS - Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Via Trentino 51, 09127 Cagliari. E-mail: t.batzella@unica.it

This work describes the dynamics and evolution trend in La Cinta beach located in San Teodoro, it is 4 km long and composed of fine quartz rich sand, backed by well-developed dune ridge and San Teodoro's lagoon. The study began a few days after the flood on the 24th of September 09, which caused the breach of 25 openings on dry-beach. Sedimentary and hydrodynamic characteristics were studied. Short-term variations have been periodically monitored since the flood and tested using topo-bathymetric digital models, derived from data acquired in 4 different fi eld surveys. Models of wave motion and hydrodynamics were created using Delft3D software. The results obtained from these models (wave ray direction, deep current distribution, structure and surfzone dynamics) allowed to visualize the response of beach to wind/waves stress, forced from NE, E, SE (wind intensity 18m/s, 10m/s). Data acquired demonstrate the hight resilence of this beach, with tendency to re-establishment of steady state with short relaxation times.

beach dynamics, NE Sardinia, sedimentology, wave and hydrodynamic modelling