The concepts of profile and plant quilibrium are part of what can be called " Engineering Methods in Beach Design", widely used by Coastal Engineers in stability and beach nourishment studies. To define the shape in plan and profile of a beach in equilibrium various approaches have been proposed in the literature .
Following this line of research, numerous scientific contributions have been made by the researchers at IH Cantabria in the last 25 years which have aimed to establish new formulations for the beach planform and profile. These formulations have also been included in practical pplications such as the SMC.