4 year University study from 2006 to 2010
Project headed by The Royal BAM Group (25,000 employees)
Main findings after 4 years:
- On a historically eroding beach the average beach elevation increased 2 ft in the PEM area
- PEM and control beaches gained sand during the study (no down-drift erosion)
- Sediment on PEM beaches had fewer very fine particles and drained better
- Increase in dune volume on PEM beaches
- Steeper beach slope on PEM beaches, which results in a more robust beach
- Lowered water table on PEM beaches
- Rapid recovery after storm on PEM beaches compared to beach without PEM
A paper on the project with PEM (called Ecobeach) can be found here.
For a short summary of the project check here.
Based on their experience from the above project BAM Group later presented an offer to the Danish Government for a 70 mile PEM project on the highly eroding Danish West coast.
Fig. 1. Beach volume in PEM area (Ecobeach) grew during the 4 year period compared to previous years