ABSTRACT 



This report describes the Littoral Environment Observation (LEO) 

 Program and assembles in one paper the data collected under the program 

 from February through December 1968. LEO is a cooperative effort of the 

 State of California and the Corps of Engineers to collect information 

 which will increase understanding of the littoral processes and physical 

 characteristics of the .California Shore. 



The littoral variables collected under the LEO program include the 

 following beach characteristics: foreshore slope, width and elevation 

 of berm, presence of cusps and samples of the sediments. The beach 

 material is analyzed for mean and median diameter, standard deviation, 

 skewness, and kurtosis. State of the sea variables include tide level, 

 wave height, wave period, wave direction, type of breaker, direction 

 and velocity of littoral currents, presence of rip currents,, and water 

 temperature. Wind velocity and direction are recorded, and panoramic 

 photographs are obtained. 



The objective is to establish a bank of repetitive, systematic 

 measurements of meteorological and oceanographic forces affecting the 

 shoreline and the response of the shore to these forces . The data 

 collected are being used as a base to analyze physical characteristics 

 of the shoreline and the littoral processes affecting it. 



FOREWORD 



This report was prepared by Andre Szuwalski, Project Engineer, 

 Evaluation Branch, under the general supervision of George M. Watts, 

 Chief, Engineering Development Division, and Dennis W. Berg, Chief, 

 Evaluation Branch. 



At the time of publication, the Director of the Coastal Engineering 

 Research Center was Lieutenant Colonel Edward M. Willis; the Technical 

 Director was Joseph M. Caldwell. 



NOTE: Comments on this publication are invited. Discussion will 

 be published in the next issue of the CERC Bulletin. 



This report is published under authority of Public Law 166, 79th 

 Congress, approved July 31, 1945, as supplemented by Public Law 172, 

 88th Congress, approved November 7, 1963. 



