Within the context of a warming climate, there are wide and increasing concerns about the way beaches respond to different wave energy environments. However, behavioural differences in changes in beach elevation contours (including shorelines) in different wave energy environments remain unknown. Thus, it is unilateral to evaluate the changes in beaches based on a single elevation contour (e.g. shoreline) in coastal engineering and management applications. In this study, based on the collected shoreline and wave energy data of two international beaches, as well as the measured beach elevation contour data from Yintan Beach and the corresponding wave energy data simulated by Xbeach, our results show that frequency distributions of beach elevation contour changes exhibit distinct features under different wave energy environments. Under high wave energy environments, the frequency distributions of beach elevation contour changes show a Gaussian distribution. However, frequency distributions of beach elevation contour changes present a power law, intermediate between the logarithmic and Gaussian distributions under low and moderate wave energy environments, respectively. Furthermore, the conceptual model of beach elevation contour changes constructed by this study indicates that the relative importance of the wave energy and sediment resistance determines this phenomenon. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

中文翻译：

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沙滩高程等高线对不同波浪能环境的响应

在气候变暖的背景下，人们越来越关注海滩对不同波浪能环境的反应方式。然而，在不同的波浪能环境下，沙滩高程轮廓线（包括海岸线）变化的行为差异仍然未知。因此，在沿海工程和管理应用中，单方面基于单个高程轮廓线（例如海岸线）评估海滩的变化是单方面的。在这项研究中，根据收集的两个国际海滩的海岸线和波浪能数据，以及从银滩海滩测得的海滩海拔轮廓数据和Xbeach模拟的相应波浪能量数据，我们的结果表明，海滩海拔轮廓的频率分布变化在不同的波浪能环境下表现出鲜明的特征。在高波能环境下，海滩高程轮廓变化的频率分布呈高斯分布。然而，海滩高程轮廓变化的频率分布呈现出幂律，分别位于低和中波能量环境下的对数分布和高斯分布之间。此外，由这项研究构建的海滩高程轮廓变化的概念模型表明，波浪能和泥沙阻力的相对重要性决定了这种现象。分级为4 +©2020 John Wiley＆Sons Ltd 在低和中波能环境下分别处于对数和高斯分布之间的中间。此外，由这项研究构建的海滩高程轮廓变化的概念模型表明，波浪能和泥沙阻力的相对重要性决定了这种现象。分级为4 +©2020 John Wiley＆Sons Ltd 在低和中波能环境下分别处于对数和高斯分布之间的中间。此外，由这项研究构建的海滩高程轮廓变化的概念模型表明，波浪能和泥沙阻力的相对重要性决定了这种现象。分级为4 +©2020 John Wiley＆Sons Ltd