Guidelines for Planning Beach Surveys

PURPOSE To emphasize the need for a planning the layout and frequency of beach surveys, b positioning permanent and temporary survey markers, and c using accurate surveying techniques. BACKGROUND On Cape Cod, survey monuments established by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in 1953 were reoccupied by U.S. Army Coastal Engineering Research Center in 1970 and still exist 10 years later. These monuments provided a means of obtaining long term records of beach and bluff changes. In a similar study of Great Lakes bluff recession, socalled permanent monuments were lost in less than 6 months due to erosion. That not only significantly affected data quality, but compromised the success of any future occupation of the survey lines for long term studies. Many coastal areas such as Cape Cod and the Great Lakes experience periods of high erosion. The difference between the two studies and their respective success and failure resulted from initial foresight and planning. A good series of beach surveys is composed of two parts documented system of permanent baseline monuments, with horizontal and vertical control and accurate survey techniques.