Spatial and temporal variability in the ridge and runnel morphology along the North Lincolnshire coast

• Main Author: van Houwelingen, Selma Tamara
• Published: Loughborough University 2005
• Subjects: 551.4580942834
• Online Access: https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.416980

Ridges and runnels are low-amplitude, shore-parallel bars and troughs in the intertidal zone of macrotidal sandy beaches. Ridge and runnel beaches are very common in the United Kingdom, particularly in the vicinity of large river outlets. Hence, an understanding of its dynamics will increase our understanding of British coastal processes, which may be useful in national coastal management plans. A number of studies have focussed on the morphodynamics of ridges and runnels, however, the main shortcoming of these previous studies is that the morphodynamics have generally been considered at limited spatial and temporal scales. This research investigates the ridges and runnels on a variety of scales and is innovative in the sense that small-scale morphodynamic behaviour is attempted to be linked to large-scale and long-term dynamics. The study area is the north Lincolnshire coast, east England, where generally 3-5 well-developed ridges and runnels are present.