A Synthetic Spring-Neap Tidal Cycle for Long-Term Morphodynamic Models

Existing tidal input reduction approaches applied in accelerated morphodynamic simulations aim to capture the dominant tidal forces in a single or double representative tidal cycle, often referred to as a “morphological tide.” These strongly simplified tidal signals fail to represent the tidal extremes and hence poorly allow to represent...

Morphodynamic Modelling in Tidal and Estuarine Environments: A Heuristic Investigation into Methods to Model Medium-Term Meso-scale Morphological Features

The overarching aim of this research is to contribute towards a best practice in modelling meso-scale O(10km), medium-term O(5yrs.) morphological features in Tidal & Estuarine environments. Therefore, various modelling aspects and stages are reviewed. The first pillar argues the need for numerical models in the...

Performance evaluation of wave input reduction techniques for modeling inter-annual sandbar dynamics

In process-based numerical models, reducing the amount of input parameters, known as input reduction (IR), is often required to reduce the computational effort of these models and to enable long-term, ensemble predictions. Currently, a comprehensive performance assessment of IR-methods is lacking, which hampers guidance on selecting suitable...

Input Reduction Analysis for Long-term Morphodynamic Simulations

Predictions of coastal morphology evolution are necessary to assess engineering solutions as well as understand coastal systems behaviors. Among the tools used to predict morphological evolution are the process-based models that make use of physical laws and empirical knowledge. Such models account for a considerable range of coastal processes...

On the anatomy of nearshore sandbars: A systematic exposition of inter-annual sandbar dynamics

Nearshore sandbars have a lifetime of many years, during which they exhibit cyclic, offshore directed behaviour with strong alongshore coherence. A bar is generated near the shoreline and grows in height and width while migrating offshore, before finally decaying at the seaward limit of the surf zone. It may take 10 to 15 years for a bar to...

Input reduction for long-term morphodynamic simulations

Input reduction is imperative to long-term (> years) morphodynamic simulations to avoid excessive computation times. Here, we discuss the input-reduction framework for wave-dominated coastal settings introduced by Walstra et al. (2013). The framework comprised 4 steps, viz. (1) the selection of the duration of the original (full) time series of...

Study on Sedimentation and Effects of Mitigating Measures at Port of Mar del Plata, Argentina

Problem definition The city Mar del Plata has one of Argentina's largest ports and biggest seaside beach resort. After the construction of the port, a steadily growing sandbank appeared in the port entrance and considerable erosion occurred on the northern beaches. To warrant the accessibility of the port, frequent maintenance dredging is needed...