Center for Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation staff member Bonnie Ludka was recently featured on the podcast Science Friday to share her expertise on sand nourishment — the process of replenishing sand swept away by tides and storms with sand from elsewhere.
Listen to the special “Good Thing, Bad Thing” segment, “Does More Sand Always Mean a Better Beach?”, here.
Ludka’s Ph.D research focused on San Diego sand nourishment projects and how they change over time, the results of which can be found in this study: “Nourishment evolution and impacts at four southern California beaches: A sand volume analysis”. She breaks down the key takeaways of the report in her interview with Science Friday host Ira Flatow, as well as the added implications from climate change on nourished sand movement. “As seas rise, beaches will have to move landward with the waterline, however, we aren’t sure which beaches will be inherently capable of that migration and furthermore, existing infrastructure could block the migration of the beach depending on how coastlines are managed.”