Integrating coral habitat potential and coastal protection services in design of artificial reefs: A case study in Addu City, Maldives

This research focuses on the implementation of the Building with Nature (BwN) approach in the design of artificial coral reefs. The goal is to explore environmental preferences and design tools for coral development, considering both coral habitat potential and coastal protection services. The research also aims to optimize artificial reef...

Computing breakwater stability using SWASH: The effects of model choices, shallow foreshore and oblique waves on the stability of a rubble mound breakwater

On the east coast of Romania, at Eforie, coastal erosion manifests. To strengthen the coastal area a large coastal protection project was setup involving beach nourishment combined with the construction of breakwaters. The breakwaters are designed with the well-known modified Van der Meer formulas. To ensure confidence in the breakwaters...

Modelling open channel flow for the features of a flexible groyne: Effects of permeability and head steepness of groynes on local flow characteristics

Large-scale measures within the river programmes such as Room for the River, Natura2000 and Water Framework Directive have increased the biodiversity in Dutch rivers and have achieved a more natural landscape. However, recent river programmes have shown conflicts between safety against flooding and riverine nature rehabilitation with maintaining...

Numerical estimation of wave loads on crest walls on top of rubble mound breakwaters using OpenFOAM

The design of hydraulic structures like breakwaters and crest walls is often based on empirical formulations, physical models test, numerical models and a fair amount of expert judgement. Each technique has its own pros and cons. The main limitation of the empirical formulas is that often they have to be applied outside their range of validity....

Development of a non-equilibrium beach in a low-energy lake environment: Using the Noordstrand of the Marker Wadden as a case study

The Noordstrand of the Marker Wadden has been subject to much more erosion than expected. From our current understanding of this low-energy system we cannot explain what has been the cause of this. The goal of this thesis is to create a better understanding of the different processes responsible for the development of this non-equilibrium beach...

Numerical modelling of tidal turbines in the vicinity of a weir: Application to the Eastern Scheldt barrier

Tidal energy has a large potential to contribute to achieving the sustainability goals in the Netherlands, due to the long coastline and many estuaries. The investment costs for the implementation of offshore tidal energy are however, still a drawback. A possibility to lower the investment costs for tidal energy is to implement tidal energy...

Storm Surge Modelling due to Tropical Cyclone Activity: Development of an artificial neural network capable of predicting maximum storm surge heights for Hong Kong and Macau

Over the recent years, flood risks and losses have been increasing for coastal cities due to climate change, subsidence, population and economic growth. Hong Kong and Macau are two cities located in the Pearl River Delta that experience a significant flood risk due to storm surges. The increased losses and risks has sparked interest around the...

Spectral Wave Dissipation by Vegetation: A new frequency distributed dissipation model in SWAN

Climate change puts under pressure existing and future coastal interventions. Growing threats like sea-level rise and intensity of storms require solutions to be adaptable and resilient. Nature-based solutions have shown to tackle these challenges while providing social, environmental, and economic benefits. The role of vegetation in coastal...

Wave energy dissipation by a viscous surface layer: Effects on the shear diffusion of a mineral oil slick

Mineral oil spills at sea can have many negative consequences. For both preventive and responsive purposes, it is essential to accurately forecast oil spill evolution. Shear diffusion (in this context, i.e. the combined effect of vertical mixing and differentiated horizontal advection of mass) determines for a significant part the evolution of...

Upscaling of coastal flood assessments for reef-fronted small island developing states and investigating the adaptive capacity to coastal flooding in the context of São Tomé

Around the world, there are 58 Small Island Developing States (SIDS). What these SIDS generally have in common is that they are very susceptible to different natural hazards, among which coastal flooding. In order to address this issue, adaptation measures are needed. In order to prioritize adaptation efforts when considering these islands at a...

Morphodynamic behaviour of coastal hard-soft transitions: A case study of Maasvlakte 2

All over the world, coastal protection measures are taken, which can be soft (e.g. sand nourishments on sandy beaches) or hard (e.g. seadikes or seawalls). Special care has to be taken to design the transition between these hard and soft flood defences, as they are often vulnerable components of a coastal defence system. This study therefore...

Simulation of Nearshore Processes and Testing of Implicit and Explicit Vegetation Representations in SWAN

Using data made available by George Mason University (GMU), a U.S. university situated in Virginia. Field data is used to validate both a Delft 3D and SWAN standalone model. The paper not only shows the difference between the implicit manning roughness approach and the explicit cylindrical vegetation approach, but also provides a comparison...

Numerical estimation and application of slamming wave impact on monopile structures

For the offshore wind industry it is essential to further reduce costs to be competitive to traditional energy resources. One of the options to achieve so is optimizing support structure design. Using XL-monopiles allows for larger turbines, deeper water access and consequently can provide for a more cost effective support structure. Within this...

Wave Transformation on Shallow Foreshores: A Study with SWAN and SWASH

Across the world, the presence of humans in coastal regions is always increasing. Hydraulic forcing from extreme events is a large risk around the global coastlines, the risk being complicated by the increased human presence along the coasts.<br/>The knowledge that vegetation can be used as a coastal protection measure is not something new. The...