"In the past 30 years, the natural sediment supply in the active zone of the Belgian coast was of the same order of magnitude (0.5 Mm3/y) as the artificial supply by means of nourishments (=zandopspuitingen). The natural supply is the result of cross-shore transport from the offshore towards the coastline. Detailed understanding in the driving mechanisms is still lacking.
In the past 30 years, the natural sea defences at the western and eastern parts of the Belgian coast have heightened more (10 to 30 mm/y) than sea level rise (2 to 3 mm/y), while the central part naturally loses sand (loss of 2 to 8 mm/y). The western and eastern parts thus show a certain natural resilience to sea level rise contributing to the soft coastal defence. Climate change induced coastline retreat can be partly compensated by natural feeding.
One-off events, like a storm, show little or no impact in the decadal beach volume morphological time series"