Morphology and sediment movement in a monsoon influenced open beach at Gangavali,near Gokarn (central west coast of India)

31-36Morphological and grain size studies have been carried out at monthly intervals (February 1993 to February 1994) to understand sedimentation pattern. Eight study sites were selected for morphological studies and five for grain size studies. It is observed that the morphological changes are cyclic i.e. erosion during monsoon and deposition during fair-weather season. The beach has experienced a loss of about 951 m3/m-1, a gain of about 1677 m3/m-1 and hence a net gain of about 725 m3/m-1 of sediments along the line of transect (all the 8 stations together) over a period of one year. A secondary cycle of erosion is observed between December and February. In general, the sediments of the study area are fine grained, well sorted, and symmetrical and platykurtic in nature. Mean grain size decreases, sorting improves and percentage of fine sand, positively skewed grains increases from north to south (G1 to G8). Beach experiences moderate turbulent energy conditions and the sediment movement is towards south in this beach .The prevailing conditions in this beach are ideal for recreational development