Accretion is the process of coastal sediment returning to the visible portion of a beach or foreshore after a submersion event. A sustainable beach or foreshore often goes through a cycle of submersion during rough weather and later accretion during calmer periods.

If a coastline is not in a healthy sustainable state, erosion can be more serious, and accretion does not fully restore the original volume of the visible beach or foreshore, which leads to permanent beach loss.

v t e Coastal management
Management	Accretion Coastal engineering Coastal management Integrated coastal zone management Managed retreat Submersion
Hard engineering	A-Jacks Accropode Akmon Artificial reef Breachway Breakwater Cliff stabilization Dolos Flood wall Floodgate Gabion Groyne Jetty Levee Hard engineering Honeycomb sea wall Hudson's equation KOLOS Mole Pier Revetment Riprap Seawall Tetrapod Training wall Wharf Xbloc
Soft engineering	Beach nourishment Beach drainage Dynamic revetment Living shorelines Sand dune stabilization Soft engineering
Related topics	Beach evolution Coastal erosion Geotechnical engineering Land reclamation Longshore transport Modern recession of beaches Stream restoration

v t e Coastal geography
Landforms	Anchialine pool Archipelago Atoll Avulsion Ayre Barrier island Bay Bight Bodden Brackish marsh Cape Channel Cliff Coast Coastal plain Coastal waterfall Continental margin Continental shelf Coral reef Cove Dune cliff-top Estuary Firth Fjard Fjord Freshwater marsh Fundus Gat Geo Gulf Gut Hapua Headland Inlet Intertidal wetland Island Islet Isthmus Lagoon Machair Mudflat Natural arch Peninsula Reef Ria Salt marsh Shoal Shore Skerry Sound Spit Stack Strait Strand plain Submarine canyon Tidal island Tidal marsh Tide pool Tied island Tombolo Waituna Windwatt
Beaches	Beach cusps Beach evolution Coastal morphodynamics Beach ridge Beachrock Beaches in estuaries and bays Pocket beach Raised beach Recession Shell beach Shingle beach Storm beach Wash margin
River mouths	Debouch River delta mega regressive Mouth bar baymouth
Processes	Blowhole Cliffed coast Coastal biogeomorphology Coastal erosion Concordant coastline Current Cuspate foreland Discordant coastline Emergent coastline Feeder bluff Fetch Flat coast Graded shoreline Ingression coast Large-scale coastal behaviour Longshore drift Marine regression Marine transgression Raised shoreline Rip current Rocky shore Sea cave Sea foam Shoal (Peresyp) Steep coast Submergent coastline Surf break Surf zone Surge channel Swash Undertow Volcanic arc Wave-cut platform Wave shoaling Wind wave Wrack zone
Management	Accretion Coastal management Integrated coastal zone management Submersion
Related	Bulkhead line Coastal engineering Grain size boulder clay cobble granule gravel pebble sand shingle silt Intertidal zone Littoral zone Physical oceanography River plume Region of freshwater influence
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