WKC provided a major, international hotel chain with a solution for their beach erosion problems at one of their flagship hotels in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

One of WKC’s valued clients operates a prime, waterfront hotel that sits beside an artificially dredged coastline, with guests enjoying a carefully sculpted beach. Over time, it had become evident that the beach was being eroded to an extent that expensive sand replenishment would be required on a regular basis in order to maintain this valuable amenity.

Beach replenishment activities are not only expensive, but extremely disruptive for hotel guests and must therefore be scheduled carefully to avoid peak seasons. Clearly, being able to reduce the frequency and extent of beach replenishment activities is something that all hotels faced with similar issues strive for.

In 2014/ 2015, WKC were fortunate to be able to work with their client to achieve an ‘optimum’ beach design, being mindful not to compromise its aesthetic amenity or ‘feel’ under-foot. With the following techniques, WKC have a range of ways to assess the mechanisms that may be causing beach erosion and to find cost effective solutions to minimise its impact:

  • Sand particle size distribution analysis
  • Hydrodynamic modelling
  • Beach profiling bathymetric surveys
  • Current measurements utilizing Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCPs)

WKC utilised a combination of such techniques, together with their coastal engineering experience, to propose an ‘optimum’ beach profile, beach shape, sand grain particle size distribution and volume of sand. Implementing this relatively simple advice has assisted with significantly reducing the frequency of beach replenishment programs, without the need for extensive, more intrusive and disruptive engineering solutions such as modifying coastal groin structures.

the recommendations provided were well justified, and presented in a very simple way helping us to see a clear path forwards