An assessment of whether long-term global changes in waves and storm surges have impacted global coastlines

A common inference in research studies of observed and projected changes in global ocean wave height and storm surge, is that such changes are potentially important for long-term coastal management. Despite numerous studies of the impacts of anthropogenic climate change on trends in global wind and waves, a clear link to impacts on sandy...

Regime Shifts in Future Shoreline Dynamics of Saudi Arabia

The Saudi Arabian tourism sector is growing, and its economy has flourished over the last decades. This has resulted in numerous coastal developments close to large economic centers, while many more are proposed or planned. The coastal developments have influenced the behavior of the shoreline in the past. Here we undertake a national...

Sandy coastlines under threat of erosion

Sandy beaches occupy more than one-third of the global coastline1 and have high socioeconomic value related to recreation, tourism and ecosystem services2. Beaches are the interface between land and ocean, providing coastal protection from marine storms and cyclones3. However the presence of sandy beaches cannot be taken for granted, as they are...

Morphodynamic acceleration techniques for multi-timescale predictions of complex sandy interventions

Thirty one percent (31%) of the world's coastline consists of sandy beaches and dunes that form a natural defense protecting the hinterland from flooding. A common measure to mitigate erosion along sandy beaches is the implementation of sand nourishments. The design and acceptance of such a mitigating measure require information on the expected...

Erratum to: The State of the World’s Beaches (Scientific Reports, (2018), 8, 1, (6641), 10.1038/s41598-018-24630-6)

A correction to this article has been published and is linked from the HTML and PDF versions of this paper. The error has not been fixed in the paper.

The State of the World’s Beaches

Coastal zones constitute one of the most heavily populated and developed land zones in the world. Despite the utility and economic benefits that coasts provide, there is no reliable global-scale assessment of historical shoreline change trends. Here, via the use of freely available optical satellite images captured since 1984, in conjunction...

Integrated modelling of the morphological evolution of the sand engine mega-nourishment

This study presents some recent developments in coastal morphological modeling focusing on flexible meshes, flexible coupling between models operating at different time scales, and a recently developed morphodynamic model for the intertidal and dry beach. This integrated modeling approach is applied to the Sand Engine mega nourishment in The...

Morphodynamic Upscaling with the MORFAC Approach in Tidal Conditions: The Critical MORFAC

A hampering factor in the application of morphodynamic models is the potential excessive time needed to complete a simulation. One way to upscale a model run is the use of a morphological factor, or MORFAC. In this paper, we investigate the upper limit to the value of the MORFAC as a function of model geometry and timestep for a schematized case...

On the Generic Utilization of Probabilistic Methods for Quantification of Uncertainty in Process-based Morhpodynamic Model Applications

A variety of uncertainty sources are inherent in process-based morphodynamic modelling applications. There is an increasing demand for the quantification of these uncertainties. This contribution introduces a probabilistic-morphodynamic (PM) modelling framework that enables this quantification. The PM modelling framework provides a systematic...

A qualitative assessment of climate change impacts on the stability of small tidal inlets via schematised numerical modelling

Tidal inlets are of great societal importance and are also the most morphologically dynamic regions in the coastal zone. Therefore, they are of great scientific interest. Their behaviour is governed by the delicate balance of oceanic processes such as tides, waves and mean sea level (MSL), and fluvial/estuarine processes such as riverflow. All...

The sand engine: A solution for the Dutch Delta in the 21st century?

The Netherlands’ strategy to combat coastal erosion since 1990 has been through nourishment, initially as beach nourishments but more and more as shoreface nourishments. In the light of sea level rise projections the yearly nourishment magnitudes continue to increase. In view of this an innovative soft engineering intervention, comprising an...

The sand engine: A solution for vulnerable deltas in the 21st century?

The Netherlands’ strategy to combat coastal erosion since 1990 has been through nourishment, initially as beach nourishments but more and more as shoreface nourishments. In the light of sea level rise projections the yearly nourishment magnitudes continue to increase. In view of this an innovative soft engineering intervention, comprising an...

Climate change impacts on the stability of small tidal inlets: A numerical modelling study using Realistic Analogue approach

Tidal inlets are of great societal importance as they are often associated with ports and harbours, industry, tourism, recreation and prime waterfront real estate. Their behaviour is governed by the delicate balance of oceanic processes (tides, waves and mean sea level), and fluvial/estuarine processes (riverflow and heat fluxes), all of which...

Morphodynamic upscaling with the MORFAC approach

The Morphological Acceleration Factor (MORFAC) approach for morphodynamic upscaling enables the simulation of long term coastal evolution. However the general validity of the MORFAC concept for coastal applications has not yet been comprehensively investigated. Furthermore, a robust and objective method for the a priori determination of the...