Beach nourishment is also known as beach replenishment, beach feeding or beach recharge. Beach nourishment is a soft structure solution used for prevention of shoreline erosion. Material of preferably the same, or larger, grain size and density as the natural beach material is artificially placed on the eroded part of the beach to compensate for the lack of natural supply of beach material. The beach fill might protect not only the beach where it is placed, but also downdrift stretches by providing an updrift point source of sand.  Wave energy is absorbed by the added length of beach slope introduced.        

Beach nourishment works entails finding a suitable source of material that is compatible with, but not necessarily identical to the material on the beach to be nourished. This method is often the preferred means of protecting a sandy shoreline as it provided the necessary reservoir of material that allows a beach to respond to wave action and achieve equilibrium. The typical interval for renourishing a beach is about 5 years.

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