The coast of the southern North Sea is bound by dune barriers that have developed adjacent to a shallow storm- and tide-dominated shoreface comprising numerous shore-parallel to sub-shore-parallel tidal sand banks. The banks evolve under the joint control of tide-, wave- and wind-induced shore-parallel currents,which tend to ‘stretch’ them, eventually leading to bank division, and to shoaling and breaking storm waves, which tend to drive them ashore. The banks, thus, modulate the delivery of storm wave energy to the coast, redirect currents alongshore and are the sand sources for the accretion of coastal dunes.