Sand transport dynamics after a foredune breach: A case study from Schoorl, The Netherlands A.L. Meerkerk a, ⁎ , S.M. Arens b , R.J.A. van Lammeren c , H.J. Stuiver c a Department of Geography, Université Catholique de Louvain, Place Louis Pasteur 3, 1348, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium b Bureau for Beach and Dune Research, Iwan Kantemanplein 30, 1060 RM Amsterdam, The Netherlands c Laboratory of Geo Information Science and Remote sensing, Wageningen University, Droevendaalsesteeg 3, 6708 PB, Wageningen, The Netherlands Received 16 March 2005; received in revised form 7 July 2006; accepted 15 August 2006 Available online 2 October 2006 Abstract Near Schoorl in The Netherlands a gap was created in the foredunes during a nature development project in 1997. This resulted in considerable aeolian sand transport and allowed the sea to enter the swale valley behind the foredunes during storm events. From 1997 to 2002 a monitoring program was carried out and various data sets were collected. This study used a part of those data to investigate the effects of a foredune breach on sand transport dynamics. The main focus was on the aeolian transport of sediment through the gap in the dunes. After the breach calcareous beach sand was transported into the swale valley where exclusively decalcified sand was present. This enabled a study of the spatial aspects of transport based on six data sets of carbonate content that were collected during the 1997–2002 period. Grids of carbonate content were interpolated and analysed together with data on geomorphology, topography and wind characteristics. The results provided insight on the displacement speed of the deposition front of calcareous sand, the influence of transport barriers and the correlation of transport directions with wind data. In addition, the study led to the observation that the trend of increase of available digital data during the last two decades is significant in facilitating the study of sand transport at the landscape scale. This is encouraging given the fact that the practical use of existing sand transport models in this context remains limited. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Coastal dunes; Sand transport; Sediment fingerprinting; Calcium carbonate content; GIS 1. Introduction In the coastal dunes near Schoorl in the northwestern part of The Netherlands a nature development project was carried out from 1997 to 2002. A gap was created in the foredunes in 1997 to promote the activity of aeolian and fluvial processes. In this paper a part of the data collected during the project is used to investigate the effects of the foredune breach on the sand transport dynamics in the area. After the foredune breach calcareous beach sand was transported into the swale valley where exclusively decalcified sand was present. Based on six data sets of carbonate content we examined the transport of the beach sand into the swale valley and its redistribution therein. At present, the sand transport processes in coastal dune environments are mostly investigated by means of Geomorphology 86 (2007) 52 – 60 www.elsevier.com/locate/geomorph ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +32 10 472884; fax: +32 10 472877. E-mail address: meerkerk@geog.ucl.ac.be (A.L. Meerkerk). 0169-555X/$ - see front matter © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2006.08.007