Book excerpt: Offshore sand and gravel deposits constitute an extensive mineral resource whose importance and economic value increase steadily as onshore and lagoonal sources become unavailable. One major use of these marine deposits is for beach nourishment where the amount of initial fill material needed and the expected periodic renourishment requirements are usually estimated using fill factor and renourishment beach fill models, respectively. Textural properties of borrow site and native beach sediments are used as the basic input for beach fill model calculations. Alterations to borrow sediment texture properties of dredging and handling techniques can significantly affect both the predicted response of the sediments after placement in the beach environment and economic aspects of the project.