These can provide proxies of shoreline movement, though in the short term they can move in opposite directions to those of the shoreline. Beach profiles along sequential transects normal to the shoreline. Best for evaluating seasonal or other short- term shoreline movements, and beach morphology. Storm surge limits and other high-water indicators of meteorological or oceanographic forcing are especially important. A sediment surplus is typically associated with an advancing shoreline, whereas a deficit may lead to shoreline retreat.
Common sources are coastal rivers, updrift beaches or bluffs, and the inner continental shelf.
Common sinks are coastal dunes, storm washovers, tidal deltas, accreting beaches, and the inner continental shelf. These should be supplemented by photographs and videos taken from low-flying aircraft, of the mean or high water line, the limit of vegetation, the landward limit of washover sedimentation, or the base or top of a coastal cliff. Simple monitoring can be done by repeated assessments of change along a particular stretch of shoreline, such as an increase in the degree of erosion at individual sites or an increase in the number of eroding sites in a particular region. Actively eroding rocky shorelines are characterized by rock falls, collapsing caves and seastacks. Long-term shoreline retreat may be marked by the presence on the foreshore of material distinct in texture or composition, such as older relict sediments, backshore peat or shell assemblages underlying foreshore deposits.