Beach profiling is measuring a beaches sand and observing it's structure, such as the dunes and crevices in the sand. Ideally, you would want to start at the top of the beach and work your way down to the 'foot' where the sand makes a sudden drop off.
What affects a beaches profile? There are a lot of things that can contribute to it. Erosion can play a huge part in beach profiling. Another thing that can mean the difference between lots of sand and very little is the amount of dunes and vegetation to support it. The more plants you have, the more likely the sand will stay in place and will not move. Lastly, storms or huge waves can almost completely wipe sand off a beach for months at a time.
When we profiled a beach in South Maui, we took two sticks, a compass, and a GPS to record our data. Both sticks had a bubble vial on them to make sure we were measuring the sticks while they were level (very important). After taking the data to see how many centimeters higher the sand was in one area versus another, we moved down the beach and kept recording the information. One of the team members actually had to go in the water so we could measure the foot of the beach. We took the GPS location and direction when we first started.
Taking the measurements(upper left) and posing for the camera (lower left).
5.9.11 Update: We chucked a rotten guava into the ocean and watched how the current moved it. Here is a digitized picture of our data. The beach profile graph w/ excel data is below that.
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