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The authors regret that the work factor χ was not printed in Eq. (32). The correct version reads [Formula presented] The authors would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused.

The twin ambits of climate change and coastal development have raised public awareness of shoreline management. Simultaneously, they have highlighted a gap in our understanding of sediment transport and morphodynamic processes at time and space scales appropriate for shoreline management purposes. Here, we analyse an exceptional set of beach surveys gathered over a period of twenty-two years along the Suffolk coast, eastern UK, that extends over approximately 80 km to investigate the meso-scale shoreline variations. The surveys have been made biannually along fixed transects spaced at approximately 1 km intervals as part of a strategic monitoring exercise undertaken by the coastal authorities to assist in shoreline management planning. Changes in beach volume, foreshore slope and shoreline position have been computed to investigate both spatial and temporal changes. The analysis reveals some distinct responses to the physical processes of tides and waves, anthropogenic interventions and geological controls. Neither a clear relationship between the presence of sea defences and beach response nor an ordered regional-scale shoreline movement are evident. Temporal variations in beach volumes and position provide a similarly complex picture with recessionary, accretionary and stable behaviour all apparent within the study site. There is evidence of quasi-cyclic behaviour at some locations as well as a reduction in variability over time-scales beyond approximately five years.

As storm-driven coastal flooding increases under climate change, wetlands such as saltmarshes are held as a nature-based solution. Yet evidence supporting wetlands’ storm protection role in estuaries - where both waves and upstream surge drive coastal flooding - remains scarce. Here we address this gap using numerical hydrodynamic models within eight contextually diverse estuaries, simulating storms of varying intensity and coupling flood predictions to damage valuation. Saltmarshes reduced flooding across all studied estuaries and particularly for the largest – 100-year – storms, for which they mitigated average flood extents by 35% and damages by 37% ($8.4M). Across all storm scenarios, wetlands delivered mean annual damage savings of $2.7M per estuary, exceeding annualised values of better-studied wetland services such as carbon storage. Spatial decomposition of processes revealed flood mitigation arose from both localised wave attenuation and estuary-scale surge attenuation, with the latter process dominating: mean flood reductions were 17% in the sheltered top third of estuaries, compared to 8% near wave-exposed estuary mouths. Saltmarshes therefore play a generalised role in mitigating storm flooding and associated costs in estuaries via multi-scale processes. Ecosystem service modelling must integrate processes operating across scales or risk grossly underestimating the value of nature-based solutions to the growing threat of storm-driven coastal flooding.

As storm-driven coastal flooding increases under climate change, wetlands such as saltmarshes are held as a nature-based solution. Yet evidence supporting wetlands’ storm protection role in estuaries—where both waves and upstream surge drive coastal flooding—remains scarce. Here we address this gap using numerical hydrodynamic models within eight contextually diverse estuaries, simulating storms of varying intensity and coupling flood predictions to damage valuation. Saltmarshes reduced flooding across all studied estuaries and particularly for the largest—100 year—storms, for which they mitigated average flood extents by 35% and damages by 37% ($8.4 M). Across all storm scenarios, wetlands delivered mean annual damage savings of $2.7 M per estuary, exceeding annualised values of better studied wetland services such as carbon storage. Spatial decomposition of processes revealed flood mitigation arose from both localised wave attenuation and estuary-scale surge attenuation, with the latter process dominating: mean flood reductions were 17% in the sheltered top third of estuaries, compared to 8% near wave-exposed estuary mouths. Saltmarshes therefore play a generalised role in mitigating storm flooding and associated costs in estuaries via multi-scale processes. Ecosystem service modelling must integrate processes operating across scales or risk grossly underestimating the value of nature-based solutions to the growing threat of storm-driven coastal flooding.

Gravel beaches and barriers form a valuable natural protection for many shorelines. The paper presents a numerical modelling study of gravel barrier beach response to storm wave conditions. The XBeach non-hydrostatic model was set up in 1D mode to investigate barrier volume change and overwash under a wide range of unimodal and bimodal storm conditions and barrier cross sections. The numerical model was validated against conditions at Hurst Castle Spit, UK. The validated model is used to simulate the response of a range of gravel barrier cross sections under a wide selection of statistically significant storm wave and water level scenarios thus simulating an ensemble of barrier volume change and overwash. This ensemble of results was used to develop a simple parametric model for estimating barrier volume change during a given storm and water level condition under unimodal storm conditions. Numerical simulations of barrier response to bimodal storm conditions, which are a common occurrence in many parts of the UK were also investigated. It was found that barrier volume change and overwash from bimodal storms will be higher than that from unimodal storms if the swell percentage in the bimodal spectrum is greater than 40%. The model is demonstrated as providing a useful tool for estimating barrier volume change, a commonly used measure used in gravel barrier beach management.

A new semi-analytical solution to the one-line model is presented in this work which can be used for the description of complicated coastal systems. An application of the semi-analytical model to Borth case study in Wales, UK, is presented. Additionally, Calangute beach in Goa, India, will be discussed as a future case study where the model will be applied.

Coastal dunes have global importance as ecological habitats, recreational areas, and vital natural coastal protection. Dunes evolve due to variations in the supply and removal of sediment via both wind and waves, and on stabilization through vegetation colonization and growth. One aspect of dune evolution that is poorly understood is the longshore variation in dune response to morphodynamic forcing, which can occur over small spatial scales. In this paper, a fixed wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), is used to measure the longshore variation in evolution of a dune system in a megatidal environment. Dune sections to the east and west of the study site are prograding whereas the central portion is static or eroding. The measured variation in dune response is compared to mesoscale intertidal bar migration and short-term measurements of longshore variation in wave characteristics during two storms. Intertidal sand bar migration is measured using satellite imagery: crescentic intertidal bars are present in front of the accreting portion of the beach to the west and migrate onshore at a rate of 0.1–0.2 m/day; episodically the eastern end of the bar detaches from the main bar and migrates eastward to attach near the eastern end of the study area; bypassing the central eroding section. Statistically significant longshore variation in intertidal wave heights were measured using beachface mounted pressure transducers: the largest significant wave heights are found in front of the dune section suffering erosion. Spectral differences were noted with more narrow-banded spectra in this area but differences are not statistically significant. These observations demonstrate the importance of three-dimensionality in intertidal beach morphology on longshore variation in dune evolution; both through longshore variation in onshore sediment supply and through causing longshore variation in near-dune significant wave heights.

The direct south-west swell wave approach and relatively narrow continental shelf create more favorable conditions for wave energy harvesting in Sri Lankan coastal region. South coast of Sri Lanka has the most energetic ocean waves which are highly modulated by the south-west monsoon winds. In this study, numerically projected ocean waves simulated using Simulating Waves Nearshore (SWAN) model for two time slices which represent the 'present' and 'future' (end-of-century) are used to evaluate the impact of global climate change on wave energy resource in the south coast of Sri Lanka. The results reveal that there will be a slight reduction of average available wave power in the west, south and east coasts of Sri Lanka in the future. Changes of wave heights during the south-west monsoon season can be identified as the reason for this reduction of wave power.

Tidal inlets, a common feature along coastlines globally, can be significantly affected by the impacts of global climate variabilities. Computational models provide the best opportunity to assess future changes to the dynamics of inlet systems. In this paper, the morphodynamic response of a gravel-dominated meso-tidal estuary inlet to Sea Level Rise (SLR) is discussed based on three future SLR scenarios. It uses a process-based computational coastal area model. The study's test site is the meso-tidal Deben Estuary inlet in the UK; it is very morphodynamically active and has a unique sediment environment, is used as the test site of this study. The modelling results reveal that the morphological response of Deben inlet is sensitive to the SLR scenario. Rising sea levels give rise to increased hydrodynamic and morphodynamic activities at and around the inlet. The ebb delta, which is a prominent morphodynamic feature of this inlet, shows greater instability as a result of increased sea levels. It is possible that the inlet may deviate significantly from its current morphodynamic regime in the future as a result of the changes imposed by higher sea levels.

Umeda, S.; Yuhi, M., and Karunarathana, H., 2018. Seasonal to Decadal Variability of Shoreline Position on a Multiple Sandbar Beach. In: Shim, J.-S.; Chun, I., and Lim, H.S. (eds.), Proceedings from the International Coastal Symposium (ICS) 2018 (Busan, Republic of Korea). Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 85, pp. 261–265. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.Seasonal to decadal variability of shoreline position at a long multi-barred beach with gentle slopes was investigated using a dataset of biannual shoreline surveys of 23 years. An empirical orthogonal function (EOF) and spectral analysis on 15.2 km long stretch were conducted to describe characteristic patterns of shoreline variation at multiple scales in time and space. A relatively alongshore uniform shoreline migration toward offshore in summer and onshore in winter was dominant in the first EOF mode which secondarily exhibited a long-term trend of shoreline recession. Mid-term shoreline variations related to shoreline sand wave and longshore sandbars were represented by the combinations of the second to sixth EOF modes filtered through two bands of dominant frequency. The shoreline pattern reconstructed on a longer time scale represented a large scale shoreline undulation whose scale and migration speed were comparable to shoreline sand waves observed in various coasts. On the otherhand, the shoreline pattern reconstructed on a shorter time scale represented alongshore uniform shoreline migration toward onshore and offshore in about five-year cycles, which corresponded to the average cycle of net offshore sandbar migration observed at the site. The periodic shoreline recession-advance related to sandbar migration was estimated to be comparable to seasonal scale shoreline variation. A correlation analysis between seasonal scale shoreline variation and wave statistics exhibited that shoreline advance in summer increased with low wave heights. It was suggested that a moderate waves were responsible for seasonal scale shoreline advance in this coast.

This article presents an introduction and overview of a modelling project “TeraWatt: Large scale interactive coupled 3D modelling for wave and tidal energy resource and environmental impact”. The project was funded by the SUstainable PowER GENeration (SUPERGEN) “Marine Hub”. SUPERGEN (http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/research/xrcprogrammes/energy/energyresearch/supergen) is an initiative of the Research Councils UK (RCUK) Energy Programme, led by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). It is focused on supporting resilient and sustainable generation, supply, transmission and storage of the UK's energy. The Marine Challenge addresses the UK Centre for Marine Energy Research's (UKCMER) mission to support the wave and tidal energy sector beyond their current state of development.

We describe a modelling project to estimate the potential effects of wave & tidal stream renewables on the marine environment. • Realistic generic devices to be used by those without access to the technical details available to developers are described. • Results show largely local sea bed effects at the level of the currently proposed renewables developments in our study area. • Large scale 3D modelling is critical to quantify the direct, indirect and cumulative effects of renewable energy extraction. • This is critical to comply with planning & environmental impact assessment regulations and achieve Good Environmental Status.

Coastal dunes are both a vital natural coastal defence and a key ecological habitat; therefore, understanding their evolution is important to inform coastal management. Megatidal environments are the world largest tidal ranges and hence provide a unique endmember of the tidal range continuum. A study site at Crymlyn Burrows, Swansea Bay, UK is monitored here; the area was originally of applied interest due to its identification as a key receptor of the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon project. The study site comprises of 2km of dune frontage bounded to the west by hard sea defences and to the east by the River Neath estuary. The intertidal is characterized by a shallow slope and crescentic intertidal bars. Mean spring tidal range at the nearby Mumbles tide gauge is 8.46m; mean wave heights at a wave buoy offshore of the site (depth 9m LAT) are 0.66m and storm wave heights exceed 3m; predominant wind direction is in an alongshore – onshore direction.A Sensefly Ebee-RTK drone with a Sony RGB camera has been used to map the dune system and the mid to upper intertidal beach on a monthly – bimonthly frequency since October 2018. Initial post-processing was conducted in the Sensefly Emotion3 software; Pix4D was then used to generate a point cloud from the georeferenced images. RTK-GPS surveyed ground control points distributed over the study area were used to improve the accuracy of the solution. Point clouds were cleaned to remove noise using Cloud Compare, an open source point cloud editor, before being interpolated onto a gridded surface. Comparison of the gridded surface against RTK-GPS surveyed points gave a vertical mean absolute error (MAE) of 0.05m over the beach area. Comparison in the dune area is more complex since the raw point cloud includes the vegetation and hence over-estimates height compared to the bare earth. Based on the raw point cloud, MAE over the dune area was 0.22m; however, when vegetation points were removed using artificial neural network based colour discrimination, the MAE was 0.05m.Longshore variation in dune evolution is clearly evident. At the eastern and western ends of the dune system, dune progradation can be observed whereas in the central portion the frontal dune is cliffed and the dune foot position is static or eroding landward. Pressure transducers have been deployed in a longshore array at the neap high tide level to assess variation in wave energy reaching the upper intertidal over the study area.This presentation will explore whether this variation in behavior is due to longshore variation in wave energy (erosion potential), variation in sediment availability (accretion potential) or the persistence of antecedent morphology.

Understanding and classification of the global wave energy resource is vital to facilitate wave energy converter technology development and global roll-out of this promising renewable energy technology. To date, many wave energy converters have been developed based on Northern European wave climates; these are not representative of wave climates worldwide and may not be the best for large scale energy extraction. Classification of resources will highlight alternative wave resource types that may prove fruitful for deployment of future technologies; equally it will enable existing technology to define regions worthy of site exploration. Therefore k-means clustering is used here to classify the global resource from a data-driven, device agnostic perspective.Parameters relevant to energy extraction (significant wave height, peak wave period, extreme wave height, spectral and directional properties) were extracted from the ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis dataset and used to split the global resource into 6 classes. Only areas within 3 degrees of land (feasible energy transport to user) were considered. The 6 classes returned by the analysis consisted of: 1) low energy high variability areas in enclosed seas; 2) low energy moderate variability areas in semi-enclosed seas and sheltered ocean coasts; 3) moderate energy areas, largely on eastern oceanic coastlines and influenced by local storm activity; 4) moderate energy areas primarily influenced by long period swell and largely on western oceanic coastlines; 5) higher energy areas, with variable conditions, primarily in the northern hemisphere; 6) highest energy areas, primarily on the tips of continents in the southern hemisphere. Consideration of device power matrices show that existing devices only perform well in classes 5 and 6, despite these areas having limited global coverage, which suggests devices should be developed for lower energy classes.To refine global roll-out planning for existing devices, based on a request from a wave energy converter developer, a second classification is currently being developed with two additional constraints on the areas tested. These constraints are excluding any areas with a mean wave power of less than 15 kW/m (an often-used value for the lower power limit for commercial viability) and a maintenance constraint whereby wave heights must drop below 3m for a minimum of 48hrs per month. These newer results will be presented at the annual assembly and contrasted with our more device agnostic classification.

Understanding of the reflection characteristics of coastal seawalls is crucial for design. Wave reflection can cause difficulties in small vessel manoeuvring at harbour entrances, this can cause damage to the toe of coastal structures by scouring. Previous studies have examined the reflection characteristics of coastal seawalls under random wind-generated waves without considering the effects of wave bimodality created by the presence of swell waves. This present study focuses on the influence of random wave bimodality on the reflective characteristics of coastal seawalls. 823 experimental tests were conducted to examine the reflection performance of impermeable sloping seawalls under bimodal waves. Reflection coefficients were computed from each test. The analysis of the results suggests that both unimodal and bimodal waves give similar reflection characteristics. However, the reflection coefficient in bimodal sea states seems to be more prolonged than in the unimodal sea states. It was found that the reflection coefficients of coastal seawalls are strongly influenced by the seawall slope, the wave steepness, the relative water depth, and the surf similarity parameters. A new empirical reflection equation to describe the influence of wave bimodality on the reflection characteristics of coastal seawalls has been formulated based on this study.

Saltmarshes are considered as natural coastal defences. However, owing to the large context dependency, there is much discussion over their effectiveness in providing coastal protection and the necessity of additional coastal defence interventions. The macro-tidal Taf Estuary in south-west Wales was chosen as the case study in this paper to investigate the effects of anthropogenic coastal defence interventions such as construction of hard defences, managed realignment, and altering land use of the saltmarshes on the complex hydrodynamics of the estuary. A coupled flow&ndash, wave&ndash, vegetation model, developed using the Delft3D coastal modelling software, was used. The wave and current attenuation role of saltmarshes during two contrasting storm conditions was modelled, with and without saltmarsh management interventions. The study reveals that certain saltmarsh management interventions can have widespread impacts on the hydrodynamics of the estuary. Altering the land use by allowing extensive grazing of saltmarsh by livestock was found to have the largest impact on wave attenuation, where wave heights on the marsh almost doubled when compared with the no-intervention scenario. On the other hand, managed realignment has a significant impact on tidal currents, where tidal currents reached 0.5 m/s at certain locations. Changes in estuarine hydrodynamics can lead to undesired impacts on flooding and erosion, which stresses the importance of understanding the effects of localized anthropogenic coastal management interventions on the entire estuarine system.

This study investigates the impacts of global climate change on the future wave power potential, taking Sri Lanka as a case study from the northern Indian Ocean. The geographical location of Sri Lanka, which receives long-distance swell waves generated in the Southern Indian Ocean, favors wave energy-harvesting. Waves projected by a numerical wave model developed using Simulating Waves Nearshore Waves (SWAN) wave model, which is forced by atmospheric forcings generated by an Atmospheric Global Climate Model (AGCM) within two time slices that represent “present” and “future” (end of century) wave climates, are used to evaluate and compare present and future wave power potential around Sri Lanka. The results reveal that there will be a 12–20% reduction in average available wave power along the south-west and south-east coasts of Sri Lanka in future. This reduction is due mainly to changes to the tropical south-west monsoon system because of global climate change. The available wave power resource attributed to swell wave component remains largely unchanged. Although a detailed analysis of monthly and annual average wave power under both “present” and “future” climates reveals a strong seasonal and some degree of inter-annual variability of wave power, a notable decadal-scale trend of variability is not visible during the simulated 25-year periods. Finally, the results reveal that the wave power attributed to swell waves are very stable over the long term.

Beach profile evolution under storm sequence forcing presents an emerging research topic that has only been investigated at a limited number of sites. The occurrence and effects of storm sequencing on beach profile evolution are studied at Hasaki Beach, Japan, using weekly beach profile and two-hourly offshore wave measurements. During the 25-year study period, the supratidal beach at Hasaki is subjected to long-term accretion and steepening while the shoreline shows a long-term oscillation. In addition, oscillations of the supratidal beach volume and the shoreline at semi-annual and annual intervals are identified, which are largely controlled by the variability of the wave height. Hasaki Beach is subjected to frequent storms that often cluster in sequences, especially during the extra-tropical cyclone season (January to March). The majority of storms and sequences generate erosion of the beach above the low water level but some also lead to recovery. Despite a tendency for storms and storm sequences with larger power to cause more erosion, the present data does not demonstrate increased beach erosion by storm sequences. Following these findings, the tendency of the beach to evolve towards equilibrium and the importance of the antecedent beach morphology are demonstrated. We gratefully acknowledge the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of the Japanese Government and the Marine Information Group of the Port and Airport Research Institute (PARI) for providing the offshore wave data and the staff from the Hazaki Oceanographical Research Station (HORS) for performing the beach profile measurements. SE acknowledges funding from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Imperial College London. HK acknowledges the support by the UK Research Councils under Natural Environment Research Council award NE/N013573/1, Title CoastWEB: Valuing the contribution which COASTal habitats make to human health and WEllBeing, with a focus on the alleviation of natural hazards. Finally, we would like to thank the two reviewers for their comments that helped to improve the manuscript.

The ability of coastal vegetation to attenuate waves has been well established (Moller et al., 2014). Salt marshes are vegetated coastal wetlands that can act as nature- based coastal defenses. They exhibit a range of plant species, which have been shown to differ in the amount of wave damping they provide (Mullarney & Henderson, 2018). Recent studies have shown that plant flexibility is a key parameter that controls wave energy dissipation (Paul et al., 2016). Yet, no model exists that includes plant flexibility in computationally efficient manner for large-scale coastal zones. Therefore, we have developed a new model for flexible vegetation based on the key mechanisms in the wave-vegetation interaction and applied it to an estuary with diverse salt marsh vegetation.Recorded Presentation from the vICCE (YouTube Link): https://youtu.be/AjnFx3aFSzs

It is acknowledged that for successful mitigation of flood risk there is a need for an integrated, basin-wide approach. This is particularly important in transboundary river basins that cross administrative borders where the actions of multiple stakeholders must be coordinated from source to mouth. The Ciliwung River, Indonesia, presents an example of a complex urban basin that crosses multiple administrative borders. The increasing frequency and severity of floods in the downstream capital city of Jakarta has highlighted the urgent need for more effective governance arrangements to tackle flooding. However, it is not clear what form these arrangements should take to be effective. In order to understand how transboundary river management arrangements can be improved to mitigate flood hazard impacts, it is first important to identify the nature of the existing management arrangements and how they relate and interact with the flood hazard. To do this, a conceptual framework was developed. The framework firstly outlines the flood hazard itself in terms of drivers and impacts. It then goes on to establish the associated transboundary governance and river management arrangements and seeks to identify any interdependencies. Key concepts were drawn from a review of the literature, conducted using online databases and search engines. The review included published journal and conference papers as well as reports published by organisations which were identified through online searches. The framework highlights multiple interrelated drivers of flood risk, both human and physical. There are also a range of governance issues related to capacities, coordination of institutions and fragmentation of plans and policies identified within the river basin, which need to be overcome. Due to the complexities of flood risk and river management, this conceptual framework provides much needed clarity to facilitate future research on transboundary management in relation to flood risk in urban and peri-urban river basins. It sets a framework for the development of improved transboundary management arrangements in the Ciliwung River Basin.

A computational model has been used to explore characteristics of the barotropic tide around the Welsh coast in detail for the first time. Proper understanding of tidal characteristics is vital for the sustainable use of marine resources; particularly for industries such as marine energy extraction, aggregate mining, aquaculture, as well as regulators and agencies with responsibilities for the resource management and public safety. In shallow water areas, the influence of bathymetry and energy dissipation leads to the generation of higher harmonics that cause complex tidal phenomena. The Celtic and Irish seas, which enclose the Welsh coast (UK), are heavily industrialised shallow water seas with macro-to mega-tidal semi-diurnal tides. It is shown that tidal distortion is significant in the Bristol Channel (S. Wales) and in the large shallow estuaries of the N. Wales coast; for much of the west coast this is only significant in localised areas around headlands and islands. Tidal dominance switches from flood dominant in the south and north to ebb dominant on the west coast. Highly complex patterns of vorticity in the tidal residual flow are noted. All these factors mean that careful siting of industry and coastal management interventions is required to avoid disruption of the natural system.

Reduction of risks due to overtopping of coastal defences is an essential requirement for the design, management and adaptation of coastal structures. Extensive knowledge is available on the prediction of overtopping of smooth, sloping and vertical impermeable seawalls. The existing prediction methods provide less certain guidance for combined wind and swell conditions. This experimental study focuses on overtopping characteristics of coastal seawalls under random bimodal waves. Both unimodal and corresponding bimodal conditions were simulated under different slopes and crest freeboards. Proportions of swell in the bimodal sea were varied in each test. Mean wave overtopping discharges were calculated for non-breaking random waves over at least 1000 waves. EurOtop formulae agree closely with our measurements from the unimodal experiments whereas they underpredict the observed wave overtopping rates for bimodal conditions even when using the recommended Tm−1,0 period for such cases. A modification to the EurOtop formula is proposed on the basis of the experimental results, to better capture the overtopping discharge under bimodal conditions.

Coastal vegetation such as seagrass fields, salt marshes, and mangroves, contributes to coastal defence by damping incoming waves. Yet, plant species differ in flexibility due to which they interact differently with incoming waves and damp waves to a variable degree. Current wave damping models struggle to balance accuracy against computational costs when accounting for wave-vegetation interactions. Instead, they often rely on a plant-specific calibration of the drag coefficient, which limits their application across plant species. Here we show, using novel simultaneous experimental data of wave damping, water velocities and stem motion, that wave damping by quasi-flexible cylindrical vegetation is controlled by the relative velocity between water and vegetation at the upright bottom section of a stem. For the quasi-flexible vegetation conditions considered in this manuscript ( L > 1.4 and C a 700 ), our experimental evidence justifies the application of a model based on the Euler-Bernoulli beam theory to estimate plant motion. Building on the solution of plant motion, we simulate wave damping over flexible vegetation fields through a new work factor. Our model successfully predicts damping of regular waves by rigid and flexible artificial vegetation, and real S. Anglica, P. Maritima and E. Athericus plants in the right order of magnitude under medium and high energy wave conditions. The simulated wave damping is directly linked to vegetation and wave conditions and does not require a plant-specific calibration of the drag coefficient. It is anticipated that the model will be of wide practical use in simulating wave damping by quasi-flexible cylindrical coastal vegetation across large areas with diverse plant species and wave conditions.

Turbulent flow over stepped spillways can be considered the most significant flow that can cause severe problems at the downstream side, near the toe of the structure, such as sediment erosion which normally occurs due to the high amount of water energy. The presence of turbulent flow over the steps can cause cavitation damages due to pressure differences over the steps. The turbulent flow, which is induced at certain times of the year, especially during the flooding seasons, is examined experimentally and numerically in this study. Flow measurements were conducted using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) system in a hydraulic flume where the dam break condition is applied in order to achieve the skimming turbulent flow. Two cases of stepped spillways were tested, normal stepped spillways and gabion stepped spillways. For each case, measurements of the instantaneous turbulent velocity field were taken at different locations of the physical models of a slope of (1V:2H). A comparison has been conducted between the gabion and normal steps to assess the required time to attach skimming flow. The results indicated that the presence of the porous media could increase the required time to attach skimming flow.

The paper presents a detailed analysis of the spatio-temporal variability of wave power resource around Sri Lanka, using computationally simulated 25 years of wave data that represents the prevailing ocean climate in the region. The computational wave model was validated against a measured wave dataset collected over a 44-month period at 70 m water depth off the coast of the south-west of Sri Lanka and ERA-Interim Reanalysis wave data and, good agreement found. The analysis reveals that the ocean around Sri Lanka from the south-west to south-east have a substantial wave power resource. The available offshore wave power resource remains between 10 and 20 kW/s throughout the year although it is significantly modulated by the south-west monsoon which falls between May and September thus increasing the power up to around 30 kW/m. The inter-annual to decadal scale variability of wave power resource remains small. Wave power reduces when waves travel from the margin of the narrow continental shelf around Sri Lanka to shallow water areas closer to the shoreline. A significant longshore variability of wave power is also observed where the south-west coast of Sri Lanka has the highest available power under the prevailing ocean climate.

Over recent years, there has been a clear increase in the frequency of reported flooding events around the world. Gabion structures offer one means of flood mitigation in dam spillways. These types of structures provide an additional challenge to the computational modeller in that flow through the porous gabions must be simulated. We have used a computational model to investigate the flow over gabion stepped spillways. The model was first validated against published experimental results. Then, gabion stepped spillways with four different step geometries were tested under the same conditions in order to facilitate inter-comparisons and to choose the best option in terms of energy dissipation. The results show that normal gabion steps can dissipate more energy than overlap, inclined, and pooled steps. An intensive set of tests with varying slope, stone size, and porosity were undertaken. The location of the inception point and the water depth at this point obtained from this study were compared with those from existing formulae. Two new empirical equations have been derived, on the basis of a regression analysis, to provide improved results for gabion stepped spillways. Keywords: Computational modelling, Energy dissipation, Gabion stepped spillways, Inception point location, Skimming flow

Tsunamis are among the most destructive natural hazards and can cause massive damage to the coastal communities. This paper presents a first numerical study on the tsunami-like solitary wave impinging and overtopping based on the mesh-free Consistent Particle Method (CPM). The distinct feature of CPM is that it computes the spatial derivatives in a way consistent with the Taylor series expansion and hence achieves good numerical consistency and accuracy. This largely alleviates the spurious pressure fluctuation that is a key issue for the particle method. Validated by the benchmark example of solitary wave impact on a seawall, the CPM model is shown to be able to capture the highly deformed breaking wave and the impact pressure associated with wave impinging and overtopping. Using the numerical model, a parametric study of the effect of seawall cross-sectional geometry on the characteristics of wave overtopping is conducted. It is found that a higher water level can lead to much more intensive overtopping volume and kinetic energy of the overtopping flow, which implies that the coastal areas are at higher risk as the sea level rises. For the purpose of engineering interest, a simple and practical way to estimate the intensity of a real tsunami is presented in terms of the volume and energy of the bulge part of the incident wave.

Purpose Coastal flooding has disastrous consequences on people, infrastructure, properties and the environment. Increasing flood risk as a result of global climate change is a significant concern both within the UK and globally. To counter any potential increase in future flooding, a range of potential management options are being considered. This study aims to explore future coastal management practice for flood alleviation, incorporating the influence of climate change. Design/methodology/approach The Taf estuary in South West Wales, a macro-tidal estuary which has a history of coastal flooding, was chosen as the case study in this paper to investigate the impact of coastal management interventions such as construction of hard defences, managed realignment or altering land use of affiliated ecosystems such as salt marshes on the complex hydrodynamics and hence flooding of the surrounding areas of the estuary. The study was carried out using a numerical hydrodynamic model of the Taf estuary, developed using the process-based Delft3D modelling software. Findings The role of the selected management interventions on coastal flooding was investigated using an extreme storm condition, both with and without the impact of future sea level rise. The results highlight the scale of the effect of sea level rise, with the selected management interventions revealing that minimising the increase in flooding in future requires careful consideration of the available options. Originality/value This paper explores the highlighted role of coastal management practice in future with the influence of climate change to study how effective alternative methods can be for flood alleviation.

This paper reviews and discusses the current research status, trends, and future needs in the field of beach morphodynamics under the influence of storm sequences. The paper reviews how the three main research methods, field investigations, numerical modelling, and physical modelling, have been used to study beach morphodynamics during storm sequences. Available quantitative definitions of storm sequences at different sites are presented and discussed. It is shown that the definition of storm sequences is site-specific and requires knowledge of the storm climate, beach characteristics, and the temporal scale of beach recovery. Subsequently, the paper brings together currently available approaches aimed at describing the effect of storm sequences on beach erosion in a general way. The importance of storm chronology and the effects of an extreme storm within a sequence of storms are highlighted. Following that, the more poorly studied aspect of beach recovery in between storms within a sequence is discussed. Three indicators for defining beach recovery, namely the shoreline location, sediment volumes, and the beach state, are identified and compared. Finally, important research needs, including the need for detailed physical modelling, are identified. Keywords: Storm sequences, Beach morphodynamics, Beach erosion, Extreme storms, Return period, Beach recovery