Section I. INTRODUCTION 



1. Background . 



One program of the U. S. Army Coastal Engineering Research 

 Center (CERC) for studying wave and beach characteristics of U.S. coasts 

 is the Beach Evaluation Program (BEP) . The BEP is a study of eight 

 beaches from southern New Jersey to Rhode Island by periodic resurveys 

 of 91 profile lines on these beaches. 



In fiscal year 1968, the BEP included an experimental project to 

 test whether beach profiles could be surveyed by observing sand levels 

 on pipes located at 50-foot intervals along selected profile lines. If 

 the project proved successful, the pipe profile data could be used both as 

 an auxiliary method of obtaining beach profiles, and as a surveillance 

 procedure that would permit fewer traditional engineering surveys, but 

 would alert the surveyors to changes in the beach requiring a complete 

 survey. 



Background information concerning the BEP (earlier known as the Storm 

 Warning Program) is given by Darling (1965-66 and 1969) and Galvin (1968b) . 

 Part of the data in the present paper was discussed earlier by Galvin 

 (1968a) and it is intended to elaborate on this work in the future. 



Along with the pipe profile data, wave observations were obtained 

 following a procedure that had been developed earlier in the CERC-USCG 

 Cooperative Surf Observation Program (Darling, 1968). 



2 . Purpose . 



The primary purpose of this paper is to present data. Weekly 

 observations of sand levels along 10 pipe profiles during January, Febru- 

 ary, and March, 1968, are presented in Appendixes A, B, C, D, and E, and 

 nearly daily wave observations from the same beaches for the same three 

 months are presented in Appendix F. In addition, some of the more evident 

 relations among the data are discussed, but a more complete discussion is 

 reserved for a future paper. 



3. Procedure 



The pipe-profile work was done in cooperation with the Phila- 

 delphia and New York Districts of the Corps of Engineers and unpaid local 

 observers. Two profile lines on each of the three beaches in southern 

 New Jersey (Long Beach Island, Atlantic City, and Ludlam Island, all in 

 Philadelphia District) and two beaches on the south shore of Long Island 

 (Jones Beach and Westhampton Beach, both in the New York District) were 

 used in the experimental program. Note that Long Beach Island, one of the 

 New Jersey beaches, is not the same as the Long Island beaches (Jones and 

 Westhampton). Table I lists these beaches, together with the names of 

 the observers, the number of pipes emplaced and destroyed, the dates of 



