The coastline of Demak, Indonesia, has been eroding during the
last 15 years. Coastal retreat in Demak is caused by a combination
of mangrove deforestation and local subsidence due to groundwater
extraction in the nearby city of Semarang. To restore the lost mangrove
forest, permeable dams, consisting of bamboo poles with a
brushwood filling, have been built to attenuate the waves, facilitate
sedimentation at their land side, and thus create a suitable habitat
for mangroves. However, existing designs required frequent brushwood
maintenance. Therefore, a new type of design is proposed,
consisting of only vertical bamboo poles without a filling of brushwood.
Nevertheless, the hydrodynamic performance of this type of
structure is not known. This study assesses the wave transformation
through structures formed by bamboo poles for the physical
conditions of Demak, Indonesia, with the numerical wave model
SWASH. Field measurements and WaveWatch III data are analyzed
to obtain the design conditions for the structures in Demak.
SWASH is validated against laboratory experiments, and applied
to investigate different structure designs. The model shows that for
a structure consisting of two rows of bamboo poles, the transmission
rate Et/Ei decreases from 75% to 55% when the row spacing
in the wave direction is increased from sx = 0.42 m to sx =5.8
m. Even larger spacings do not result in less transmission, and
at least three rows are needed to have a transmission rate lower
than 50 % - a common wave reduction target used in restoration
efforts with structures. This study thus identifies potential strategies
to maximize wave attenuation by bamboo structures, which
can be used to reduce wave attack along muddy coasts without
the need of a brushwood filling. Hereby it provides an economically
and user friendly alternative with respect to the previous
brushwood structure designs, as it requires less material costs and
maintenance.