Determining the Downcoast Control Point for the Parabolic Bay Shape Equation

For coastal development projects, artificial beaches are an attractive feature and large scale coastal developments are being planned and constructed throughout the Middle East at a remarkable rate. In the design of any artificial beach it is desirable to avoid, or minimise, any future maintenance commitments by designing the initial beach planshape in such a way that it remains relatively stable under the incident wave climate experienced. Headland bays, or embayments, where a sandy beach is held by one, or between two erosion resistant headlands, tend to evolve to a stable beach planshape with little movement of the beach contours over time. The creation of artificial stable beaches has mainly been achieved through the application of the static equilibrium bay theory which is based on empirical equations of natural headland bay beaches.