PLEASE NOTE: Application deadline date 08 Jan 2024. Applications are no longer being accepted for this project
Project Overview
This coastal research will explore gravel barrier transgression in response to future climate and sea level forcing. The implications for sustainable management of these systems, to provide natural coastal protection and vital coastal habitats, will be analysed to provide evidence to support shoreline management strategies
Project Description
Gravel beach and barrier systems are common throughout the world. They form unique lagoon and/or vegetated shingle ecosystems while providing natural protection against coastal flooding and erosion. It is known that barriers rotate in response to changes in wave climate and that landward migration occurs due to sea-level rise by storm-induced overwash, but the rate of migration is poorly constrained. Also, the influence of different sediment grades and accommodation space on the cross-shore movement is unclear. Being able to confidently project barrier evolution over shoreline management epochs (<100 years) is critical to plan sustainable management activities.
ShoreTrans is a shoreface translation and sediment budgeting model suitable, but not thoroughly tested, for gravel barrier applications. Using a rules-based approach it simulates coastline change due to sea level rise and variations in sediment supply over 10-100 years. This project will improve the processes represented by including variable wave climates and dynamic feedback between the morphology and waves. Model developments will be tested for several sites using data from the National Network of Regional Coastal Monitoring and other models (e.g., ForCE/XBeach-G). Future scenarios will be derived with UK coastal practitioners to explore the impacts of climate variability with no intervention and adaptive intervention to support strategy development to establish sustainable management options.
The work aligns with UKRI’s interest to build an understanding of natural coastal protection by gravel barriers in a changing climate, https://www.ukri.org/opportunity/addressing-environmental-challenges-nerc-highlight-topics-2023/. This will offer opportunities to engage with site managers and the Environment Agency through new and ongoing research projects.
The INSPIRE DTP programme provides comprehensive personal and professional development training alongside extensive opportunities for students to expand their multi-disciplinary outlook through interactions with a wide network of academic, research and industrial/policy partners. The student will be registered at the University of Southampton and hosted at the School of Ocean and Earth Science. Specific training will include:
- How to use coastal evolution and hazard models (e.g., ShoreTrans, XBeach-G and ForCE).
- How to validate and analysis numerical results alongside observations. This will be delivered in collaboration with the NOC.
- Where opportunity allows there will be experience gained in coastal survey and fieldwork.
- There will be potential opportunities to visit Tarmac Marine (Chichester) to gain experience in marine gravel coring depending on study site selection.
McCarroll et al. (2021) A rules-based shoreface translation and sediment budgeting tool for estimating coastal change: ShoreTrans. Marine Geology, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.margeo.2021.106466
Prime, Brown, Plater (2016) Flood inundation uncertainty: the case of a 0.5% annual probability flood event. Environmental Science & Policy, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2016.01.018
Davidson (2021) Forecasting coastal evolution on time-scales of days to decades. Coastal Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coastaleng.2021.103928
