This paper expands and revises the original Gulf of Mexico beach nourishment database of Dixon and Pilkey (1989) by summarizing the beach nourishment experience up to 1996. Information is presented concerning 158 nourishment episodes along 60 beaches totaling over 78,000,000 cubic yards of emplaced sand from Corpus Christi, Texas to Marco Island, Florida. In recent years, the number, volume and average length of beach nourishments per year has increased.

This study documents that since 1923, approximately 350 million cubic yards of sand have been deposited on the US East Coast barrier island shoreline (from Long Island, New York to Fisher Island, Florida), by more than 573 beach nourishment episodes, at 154 locations. On East Coast barrier beaches, the use of beach nourishment to control coastal erosion has increased rapidly since the 1960's. Most of this volume (65%) has been placed by federally sponsored beach nourishment projects, either storm and erosion control projects or navigation projects with beach disposal of dredge spoil. However, the proportion of nourishment projects not involving federal funds (state/local and local/private nourishment projects) has been increasing.