IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/nathaz/v83y2016i2d10.1007_s11069-016-2368-z.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Erosion and heavy mineral depletion of a placer mining beach along the south-west coast of India: Part I— Nearshore sediment transport regime

Author

Listed:
  • R. Prasad

    (National Centre for Earth Science Studies (NCESS))

  • L. Sheela Nair

    (National Centre for Earth Science Studies (NCESS))

  • N. P. Kurian

    (National Centre for Earth Science Studies (NCESS))

  • T. N. Prakash

    (National Centre for Earth Science Studies (NCESS))

Abstract

The Chavara coast of southwest India is well known for its rich beach placer deposits which are being commercially exploited by the industries. Replenishment of these resources, which consist of heavy minerals of varying densities, by the hydrodynamic processes is essential for maintaining the stability of the coast as well as sustenance of mining. Rich concentrations of heavy minerals were reported consistently in the beach sediments of this coast in the past, but a systematic reduction in the concentration of the heavies has been reported during the past one-and-a-half decades. This paper, the first in a series of three, emanates from a programme of study launched to understand the mechanisms that manifest the reported changes in the morphology and mineralogy along this coast. In this study the longshore and cross-shore sediment transport rates along this coast have been estimated adopting numerical model studies. The validated LITDRIFT and LITPROF modules of the LITPACK modelling system have been used for computing the longshore and cross-shore sediment fluxes in the surf zone and innershelf region. The net annual longshore sediment transport is northerly in the surf zone where as it is southerly in the innershelf. Detailed analysis of the computed results shows domination of onshore transport over offshore transport. The beach volume change estimated from the measured beach profile on the other hand shows a reduction in the annual replenishment. The domination of the onshore flux as seen in the computations is actually not reflected in the field observations, and this can be attributed to the influence of excessive sand mining by the industries.

Suggested Citation

  • R. Prasad & L. Sheela Nair & N. P. Kurian & T. N. Prakash, 2016. "Erosion and heavy mineral depletion of a placer mining beach along the south-west coast of India: Part I— Nearshore sediment transport regime," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 83(2), pages 769-796, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:nathaz:v:83:y:2016:i:2:d:10.1007_s11069-016-2368-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s11069-016-2368-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11069-016-2368-z
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11069-016-2368-z?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. R. Prasad & L. Sheela Nair & N. P. Kurian & T. N. Prakash & Tiju I. Varghese, 2016. "Erosion and heavy mineral depletion of a placer mining beach along the south-west coast of India: part III—short- and long-term morphological changes," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 83(2), pages 823-847, September.
    2. T. N. Prakash & Tiju I. Varghese & R. Prasad & L. Sheela Nair & N. P. Kurian, 2016. "Erosion and heavy mineral depletion of a placer mining beach along the south-west coast of India: Part II—Sedimentological and mineralogical changes," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 83(2), pages 797-822, September.
    3. N. Kurian & K. Rajith & T. Shahul Hameed & L. Sheela Nair & M. Ramana Murthy & S. Arjun & V. Shamji, 2009. "Wind waves and sediment transport regime off the south-central Kerala coast, India," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 49(2), pages 325-345, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. R. Prasad & L. Sheela Nair & N. P. Kurian & T. N. Prakash & Tiju I. Varghese, 2016. "Erosion and heavy mineral depletion of a placer mining beach along the south-west coast of India: part III—short- and long-term morphological changes," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 83(2), pages 823-847, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Aboobacker, V.M., 2017. "Wave energy resource assessment for eastern Bay of Bengal and Malacca Strait," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 114(PA), pages 72-84.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:nathaz:v:83:y:2016:i:2:d:10.1007_s11069-016-2368-z. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.