Nearshore Bathymetric Profile

A nearshore bathymetric profile is a cross-shore depth section measured from the shoreline out across the surf zone to about the closure depth, where seasonal change becomes negligible. It captures the bar-and-trough morphology, the foreshore slope, and the seaward limit of active sediment movement. Surveyors collect it with single-beam or multibeam echosounders on small craft, jet-ski hydrographic systems, or wading RTK GNSS in the shallows, all reduced to a common vertical datum. Joined to the subaerial beach-profile survey it gives the full land-to-closure profile used in sediment budgets, beach-nourishment design, and numerical morphodynamic models.