The importance of time-varying, non-tidal currents in modelling in-situ sand wave dynamics

Sand waves are found on shallow, sandy seabeds throughout the world and their dynamics may pose an imminent threat to offshore construction. Therefore, there is a pressing need to understand bed level dynamics in sand wave areas. These bed level dynamics lead to variations in sand wave shape and migration rate over time. However, these...

Assessing shoreline dynamics over multiple scales on the northern Yucatan Peninsula

Coastal erosion is critical in many locations along the northern Yucatan Peninsula. The area is characterized by a micro-tidal regime and low-energy wave conditions, with a high-incidence angle with respect to the shoreline. Port and harbor infrastructure for fisheries, commercial, and tourist activities has promoted the growth of coastal...

Using Multibeam Echosounders for Multiscale and Interdisciplinary Habitat Mapping on the Dutch Continental Shelf

Because the seafloor is a complex ecosystem, a multidisciplinary approach must be adopted in order to produce comprehensive habitat maps. Such multidisciplinary projects have been lacking for the Dutch area of the North Sea. To address this lack, the Distribution, structure and functioning of low resilience seafloor communities and habitats of...

Linking the morphology and ecology of subtidal soft-bottom marine benthic habitats: A novel multiscale approach

High-resolution surveying techniques of subtidal soft-bottom seafloor habitats show higher small-scale variation in topography and sediment type than previously thought, but the ecological relevance of this variation remains unclear. In addition, high-resolution surveys of benthic fauna show a large spatial variability in community...

Seafloor classification in a sand wave environment on the Dutch continental shelf using multibeam echosounder backscatter data

High resolution maps of sandy seafloors are valuable to understand seafloor dynamics, plan engineering projects, and create detailed benthic habitat maps. This paper presents multibeam echosounder backscatter classification results of the Brown Bank area of the North Sea. We apply the Bayesian classification method in a megaripple and sand...

Video Transects Reveal That Tidal Sand Waves Affect the Spatial Distribution of Benthic Organisms and Sand Ripples

The sandy seabed of shallow coastal shelf seas displays morphological patterns of various dimensions. The seabed also harbors a rich ecosystem. Increasing pressure from human-induced disturbances necessitates further study on drivers of benthic community distributions over morphological patterns. Moreover, a greater understanding of the sand...

Sand Waves along the Dutch Coast

Sand waves, defined as longshore wave-like movements of the shoreline, measured in a horizontal plane, are described along several stretches of the shoreline of The Netherlands. They have a celerity in the order of 50-200 m/yr, a period of 50- 150 years and an amplitude of 30- 500 m. They are found along the whole Dutch shoreline. Analysis of...

Zandgolven en kustverdediging in Zeeland: Voorspelling van kustgedrag

Langs de Zeeuwse kust bewegen grote massa's zand van zuid naar noord. Deze zandgolven zorgen voor een cyclisch kustgedrag. Bij de besluitvorming over kustverdedigingswerken en strandsuppleties is inzicht in de kinematica van deze golven essentieel.