The Tsleil-Wautuh Nation (TWN) reserve, Sleil-Waututh, located at the north shore of the Burrard Inlet in Vancouver (British Columbia, Canada) is strongly influenced by climate change. Sea level rise, coastal flooding and shoreline erosion are contributing to loss of land, damages to infrastructure, ecosystem changes and exposure of historic sites with cultural value. The TWN are a First Nation, a recognized group of aboriginal people in Canada, and have lived in harmony on the lands and waters of the Burrard Inlet since time out of mind. As TWN has a sacred obligation to be caretakers of the land, they retained Kerr Wood Leidal (KWL) to conduct a climate change hazard and vulnerability assessment and to design a ten year climate change adaptation action plan. The existing conditions in the area are investigated from a technical, environmental and sociological point of view, including a study of the community context of the TWN. Climate change exposes the project area to hazards such as sea level rise, acidification and water temperature changes among others. After conducting a hazard assessment, the following climate change induced hazards are evaluated: Coastal flooding, coastal erosion, intertidal area change, ocean acidification, harmful algae blooms and other ocean conditions (water temperature, e.g.). The impact of waves and rising sea levels are assessed through an Xbeach model. The impact of harmful algae blooms and other ocean conditions are evaluated though literature research. The potential of four different approaches, varying from traditional to building with nature-based solutions, to mitigate the identified hazards are discussed: a rip rap, a nourishment, a salt marsh and a clam garden. They are evaluated based on technical, environmental, economic and social feasibility. For each alternative a trade-off exists between protection against the identified hazards – mainly between the ability of each of the solutions to prevent or mitigate coastal flooding and erosion while preserving the local ecosystem and intertidal area. All alternatives help the TWN in their own way and although further research has to be done, this report provides an insight in four possible alternatives that could support the process of developing a satisfactory solution for the coastal hazards that cause problems for the TWN people and their reserve.

The Netherlands has 254 km of coastline that is covered with sandy dunes. As these dunes function as primary flood defences, intensive research has been conducted into dune erosion in recent years. This research mainly took place in laboratories, because all boundary conditions could be controlled and measurements could take place very accurately. However, it remains difficult to simulate a natural wave climate in a flume. In addition, there is also the risk of forgetting certain (as yet unknown) natural processes. Partly because of this, the demand for accurate field data and field measurement techniques has increased over the years. This thesis proposes a new experimental method to investigate dune erosion in the field, in which a 40 feet open-top shipping container is used as an in-field wave flume. Two containers are placed in between the low- and high waterline of the Sand Engine, near Kijkduin. The experimental method is validated by looking at the hydrodynamics within the container and by comparing dune erosion within this container with dune erosion from existing field and laboratory studies. This validation consists of four experiments in which several research hypotheses are tested to see if the wave propagation and erosion processes inside the containers work as expected. In general, it can be concluded that the experiments carried out inside the containers were in good agreement with the tested theories. These theories included that: the avalanching process is present, higher dunes have a bigger eroded volume, the dune toe follows the rising water level and the slope of the foredune remains similar during the erosion process. As this was the first time this method has been used, some recommendations are made. One of those findings is that the use of the measurement systems should be the same in both containers. A good reason to use this contained erosion method again is for the investigation of the grain size influence in erosion processes.