LABORATORY INVESTIGATION OF SHORE EROSION PROCESSES

Abstract

The laboratory investigation was undertaken as part of a shore protection demonstration program sponsored by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. Subsequently funding was also provided by the Sea Grant Program. The laboratory work is being done in the Lake Hydraulics Laboratory, a facility of the Department of Civil Engineering of the University of Michigan. The field demonstration program consists of 19 field installations at locations on Lakes Michigan, Huron and Superior. The laboratory program was planned to supplement information from the field installations by testing over a wider range of variables and to test procedures not included in the field program. This program has also proven to be useful in the demonstration of shore erosion processes to groups concerned with shore problems. Although erosion rates determined in a model cannot be converted quantitatively to nature it was reasoned that if natural shore erosion processes could be simulated and if repeatable erosion rates could be produced in the model the results could help to evaluate the relative effectiveness of many protective methods. The advantages of using a model are the much lower cost compared with field installations, the control over such variables as wave height and water level and the speed with which results can be obtained.