Beach Profiling

Over this week me and my class have learned about beach profiling and how to do so. What we do in beach profiling is we take measurements across the beach to find there slope. this will help us give a part of a beach its own profile. We are using many tools such as a GPS (to pin point where our maker is), a compass (to show what direction our beach is heading), and rise and run sticks (glorified polls with measurements on them). these tool all together will help us give a part of a beach its own profiles.

now many beaches have different profiles. most beaches will slope down all the way to the foot of the beach (a little dip in the water that marks the end of a beach). some may have a big drop off at the beginning of the beach then be smooth all the to the foot. other parts of the beach will slope up at first then slope down. there are many factors to determine the profile of a beach. High tides can be a factor, the tides can move sand up and drag sand back down. some beaches the tides are so extreme that they leave little drop offs of sand because of the factor of the tides taking sand. wind is a contributing factor in beach profiling. wind can carry sand across a beach and place it somewhere else. sometimes we might not want the wind to take our sand somewhere else, so what we do is put up fences that let wind though but not the sand. These fences help create dunes. And natural elements such as big rocks or trees can determine the beginning and end of a beach by collecting sand that may get picked up by wind.

here are the procedures that we took to profile a beach:

1. We will first find a point on the top of a dune and mark it. (its important that this spot will last and not get covered up by sand)

2. Now we get one member to take a transect line from our marker to the foot of the beach

3. We now will have two people holding the rise and run sticks across the transect line. (the run stick should be at the bottom of the slope.)

4. Also when you move down the transect you will put the rise stick where the run stick was last.

5. Make sure you have another person collecting the measurements that you get from the rise and run stick.

6. before you start measuring make sure to get the longitude and latitude from a GPS.

7. Also get the direction the beach is pointing from a compass.

8. When you are done head back to the school.