Resumen
The present paper proposes a methodology to optimise the design of a beach protection intervention at Saadiyat Island, of the Abu Dhabi city in the United Arab Emirates. In particular, a nourishment performance index (NPI) has been introduced to select among different design alternatives of a coastal engineering intervention related to the ongoing development of the island. The NPI is based on general factors such as the initial volume of sand necessary for the nourishment, the beach surface loss after the intervention and the closure depth. The proposed index, properly integrated with a numerical simulation of the beach morphodynamics, is shown to be promising in the evaluation of the feasibility for the planned coastal defence interventions. The adoption of different design scenarios has showed that the NPI value depends mainly on the built nourishment shoreline.