Recent improvements for estimation of longshore transport

In the present study, the accuracy of the GLT model (Tomasicchio et alii, 2013) has been verified for the estimation of the Longshore Transport (LT) at shingle and mixed beaches. In order to verify the suitability of the GLT model in determining LT estimates at shingle beaches, without any further calibration, the comparison between the LT predictions and observations from two field data sets (Chadwick, 1989; Nicholls & Wright, 1991) has been considered. The comparison showed that the GLT predicted LT rates within a factor of 2 of the observed values. The predictive capability of the GLT has been also verified against an alternative general formula for the LT estimation at shingle beaches (Van Rijn, 2014). In addition, the suitability of the GLT model, even for the mixed beach case, has been assessed by means of the comparison between the LT prediction and the observation from a field experiment on a mixed sand and gravel beach at Hawke's Bay, on the east coast of New Zealand (Komar, 2010).