Photo 4 (Return)

Worthing Esplanade 1998. The beach has been stabilised and a line of defences held over the past 100-150 years to protect the resort town. Groynes intercept net eastward drift on the gravel upper beach (note the asymmetry of sediment fill in the groyne embayments) and a sea-wall controls landward recession and overtopping. Periodic gravel recharge is also practised to maintain the beach. These measures have significantly reduced the natural drift leading to late-20th Century depletion of downdrift frontages at Lancing.