The Journey of a Sand Grain from Beach to Dunes

In the Netherlands, dunes form our most important natural line of defence against rising sea levels and severe storms. As discussed in Chapter 3, the Sand Motor is an unprecedented large sandy nourishment with 128 hectares of new land. Sand is always on the move, and such a wide sandy beach provides large potential for wind-blown sand and hence dune formation. This wind transport (also known as aeolian transport) causes the foredunes to grow and makes them dynamic, but it may also cause early dune development, which has so far been largely ignored in coastal research.