Abstract:
Study on the variations of beach erosion at Besut and Marang Beaches was conducted to
determine the changes of beach profile and the sediment characteristics at these particular
areas. Sampling was conducted in six stations at Besut and Marang respectively and has
been carried out in two times which is in May 2011 which represented before monsoon
season and January 2012 which is during monsoon season. The beach morphology and
sediment characteristics at East Coast Malaysia were greatly influenced by Northeast
monsoon. From this study, it seems that during the monsoon not only erosion rate on the
beaches occurred, but it is also dominated by deposition in certain areas. By comparing
the beach slope degree of Besut and Marang from May 2011 to January 2012, Marang
has higher beach slope degree than Besut such as at station 1, 2 and 3. Although, both
Besut and Marang have a wavebreaker at the river mouth, however at Besut, there are
series of groin was built at the shoreline. The rain distribution and wind velocity play a
great role which influenced the changes of the sediment characteristics and beach profile
changing. Moreover, the existence of man-made structure also has been caused a
different effect to the beach morphology changes. From the study, the sediment in the
both areas was dominated by coarser sand type and poorly sorted values. Most of the
sample was distributed to very negatively skewed followed by negatively skewed
sediment. Meanwhile, the distribution of sediment in the both study area was dominated
by the medium sand type with poorly sorted and moderately sorted sediments. Based on
this study, erosion process at Marang was most eroded compared to Besut. Sediment at
Marang also coarser and poorly sorted compared to Besut.
