Jarmalavičius, D.; Šmatas, V.; Stankūnavičius, G.; Pupienis, D., and Žilinskas, G., 2016. Factors controlling coastal erosion during storm events. In: Vila-Concejo, A.; Bruce, E.; Kennedy, D.M., and McCarroll, R.J. (eds.), Proceedings of the 14th International Coastal Symposium (Sydney, Australia). Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue, No. 75, pp. 1112 - 1116. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.

Extreme storms may induce major changes in coastal morphology which are usually short-term in nature. The storm-related effects are controlled by different factors such as storm intensity, sand composition and coastal morphology. The main task of this study is to identify the main factors controlling erosion processes in particular coastal sectors during an extreme event. We analysed three major storms that took place over the last 15 years on the Lithuanian Baltic Sea coast: 4^th December, 1999, 9^th January, 2005 and 11^th January, 2015. The scale of storm impact has been assessed through annual and post-storm shore profile measurements (70 profiles). We estimated changes in beach volume (m³/m) during each storm, post-storm recovery and for the whole 1995–2015 period, as well as analyzed sand composition and morphological parameters. Storm parameters, such as wind direction and speed were analyzed using Advanced Research, Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF-ARW). Our results demonstrate that despite wind field differences in particular coastal sectors during storms, scale of erosion mainly depends on coastal morphology and sand composition.