Presentations Overview

With the increase in storminess due to climate change induced sea level rise, coastal protection solutions need to be able to contend with larger storms, resulting in larger incident waves, on a more regular basis. Many traditional coastal protection systems like vertical seawalls are proving to be ...

Physical modelling case studies

In many tidal flat regions like the Yangtze River Delta, vegetation naturally grows alongside dikes and offers wave dissipation benefits. Studies by Suzuki et al. (2019) have shown that vegetated foreshores effectively dissipate waves. They also reduce flow velocities, leading to sediment accumulati...

Wave run-up and overtopping

Large scale (full and half scale) experimental tests were conducted to investigate the performance of four constructed salt marsh edge treatments and their ability to attenuate waves and limit reshaping of a marsh platform. The four tested edge treatments include a natural sand edge, a rounded grave...

Modelling Nature

The first worldwide attempted large-scale test on coastal salt marsh under the action of extreme design hydrodynamic conditions will be carried out in January 2023. At the conference, the preliminary results in terms of wave attenuation, erosion and removed biomass will be presented as well as the p...

Modelling Nature

The increasing interest in marine renewable energy has led to the development of the first Italian lab in the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Naples harbour: the Marine Renewable Energy Lab (MaRELab), resulting from a collaboration between the Italian CNR and the University of Campania "Luigi Va...

Coastal field measurement and monitoring

In the lecture several recent developments in laboratory measurement techniques are discussed. Techniques like digital cameras, laser scanners, and IMU sensors are improving in quality and become more accessible every year. They are also increasingly used in hydraulic modelling. Examples are given o...

Monday Workshop

In the era of climate change, the adaptation of existing coastal structures as a response to potential increasing loads, has become a trending topic in coastal engineering.In this context, this research is focussed on the evaluation of wave overtopping for conventional rubble mound breakwaters, modi...

Wave run-up and overtopping

This study investigates the flow velocity of extreme waves overtopping promenades. Using bubble image velocimetry (BIV), experiments were conducted in the scaled-down wave flume CIEMito at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. Post-processing of collected images determined flow velocities. The aim ...

Wave run-up and overtopping

Many low-lying coastal urban areas in north-western Europe rely on a hybrid beach-dike coastal defense system against flooding, which consists of a low-crested impermeable sea dike and a long (nourished) beach in front that functions as a very/extremely shallow foreshore during storm conditions. Alo...

Coastal field measurement and monitoring

The Cubilok™ is a new trademarked armour unit that was developed in South Africa by PRDW to cater to a range of breakwater designs. As part of a master's research study, 2D physical model tests were conducted to investigate the stability and behaviour of the Cubilok™ on a 3V:4H slope. This inves...

Physical modelling case studies

The purpose of this experimental modelling study was to provide data on the hydraulic performance and stability of low-crested and conventional rubble mound breakwaters (RMBW) constructed using ecologically-friendly armour units under various wave conditions. The University of Ottawa, the National R...

Coastal and ocean structures, breakwaters, revetments

Seminal work of Stokes, based on linear wave theory, suggest that there is a net forward drift in the fluid beneath a propagating surface wave. However, a recent work supported by field measurements suggest that in many cases, particularly in waves propagating over a shear flow, either a net forward...

Infragravity waves

Landslides that occur in coastal environments drive cascading consequences such as large wave forces, flooding, and infrastructure damage in coastal communities. It can be difficult to classify these slides as subaerial or submarine, and the mechanics of wave generation associated with partially sub...

Tsunami hydrodynamics, impacts, and mitigation

Some coastal infrastructures (i.e. intakes, outfalls, gates) incorporate singular elements (meshes, nets or grids) which, through their interaction with the water flow, can produce large changes in the water level (upstream and downstream) and forces on them. In order to characterize both the head l...

Combined physical and numerical modelling

This conference contribution introduces and validates a laboratory-scale measurement method employing photogrammetry techniques. With the rapid advancement of computer vision technology, it is possible to improve the limitations of traditional wave gauges and better describe temporal and spatial wav...

Laboratory technologies, measurement systems

Understanding marine dynamics, particularly in coastal areas with high wave activity, cannot be achieved without physical modeling. However, when it comes to downscaled physical wave modeling, accurately recording wave data becomes a challenge, especially near coastlines where disturbances are commo...

Laboratory technologies, measurement systems

Artificial or Engineered reefs are typically submerged structures, developed for enhancing the ecological system. Often these artificial reefs have either a complex shape inspired by biomimicry (e.g. Coastruction) or a more regular shape, designed to function as modular blocks that can be easily pla...

Wave-structure interactions, loading, response

This paper presents a thorough experimental study on the performance assessment of two different active wave absorption control systems (MTS and Awasys) as a means to establish the quality of the experiment in terms of the uniformity (space) and stability (time) of generated wave parameters (descrip...

Wave synthesis, generation, and analysis

Wave overtopping is a key parameter on the breakwater design, since it affects the hydraulic stability, the port operativity and also generates risks to the facilities, vehicles and pedestrians. However, the maximum individual wave overtopping volume, Vmax, can be much larger than the mean wave over...

Wave run-up and overtopping

As part of the research programme on the strength of clay with grass cover on the upper slope of a dike, large scale physical model testing has been performed. These physical model tests where the first step within the programme. In the second step the CFD model OpenFoam has been used to broaden the...

Wave-structure interactions, loading, response

Coastal flood risk is projected to increase significantly in the future due to climate change (sea level rise, storm surge) and ongoing land subsidence. In these usually highly urbanized regions, flood defenses are typically hard 'grey' structures such as levees. Levees require regular maintenance a...

Coastal flooding, flood prevention, shore protection

Climate adaptation of coastal structures has become more important due to climate change. One of the climate adaptation measures is to reduce the wave loading before the waves reach the coastal structure. This can be achieved by constructing a low-crested structure in front of the coastal structure....

Wave run-up and overtopping

In the present study, a three-dimensional coupled numerical model is developed to investigate the excess pore pressure development around a monopile foundation and the accompanying changes in the effective stress of the seabed soil. In addition to the coupled hydrodynamic-geotechnical analyses, phys...

Combined physical and numerical modelling

Infragravity waves are surface waves with relatively longer periods in comparison to periods of the spectrum-dominant gravity waves. They are characterized by oscillations between 20 and 300 seconds (0.0033 Hz < f < 0.05 Hz), amplitudes that range from a few millimeters to tens of centimeters, and w...

Infragravity waves

Composite vertical breakwaters are structures often used to protect port basins, especially in deep-water conditions. One of the technical solution to optimize the performance of these structures consists in placing the crown wall at a retreated position, aiming at inducing a time lag between the lo...

Wave-structure interactions, loading, response

This study aims to quantify wave attenuation by a series of parallel submerged reef structures, representative for designs used in recent shellfish reef restoration efforts in Australia and the US. Experiments (1:10 scale) were carried out in a 54-m-long wave flume with a range of wave conditions, w...

Modelling Nature