Beach fetch distance and aeolian sediment transport

An experiment was conducted to examine the influence of fetch distance on aeolian sediment transport on a natural sand beach at Benone Strand, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. The site consisted of a wide dissipative beach, approximately 150 m wide at low tide and 80 m wide during high tide. Surface moisture levels (and hence dry fetch distance) were dictated by both local groundwater, from a stream outlet across the beach, as well as local tidal levels. An abundant dry sediment supply was available during the experiment. High-resolution (1 Hz) measurements were made of wind speed and direction along with sediment flux. Wind velocity ranged from 2·1 to 8·1 m s^–1 during the study. Second-order polynomial sand transport equations were derived from the wind speed and trap results with r ² values of better than 0·93 for all data. When the data were sorted into velocity bins of 1 m s^–1, there was no discernible relationship between fetch distance and sand transport, with a measured fetch distance range of 10–58 m available during the experiment. Results show that fetch distance is unimportant when an adequate sand supply is available. However, it is suggested that fetch may restrict the development of steady-state transport under sediment-limited conditions. Sediment availability is thus identified as a key variable in aeolian transport studies on natural beaches.