Building stable beaches – a new tool to help

HR Wallingford in the UK has developed a new software package, in ArcGIS, to help coastal engineers model artificial beaches. The Beach Design and Management Tool (BDMaT) allows engineers to apply the necessary parabolic equations computationally, saving much laborious number crunching and giving a visual display of the results. BDMaT helps in the design of stable beaches, offering an intuitive environment with simple inputs and instant visualisation of the results.