Scale model of Indian Ocean island allows scientists to assess the impact of rising sea levels

The 50-metre replica has been created by researchers from the University of Plymouth, Delft University of Technology and Deltares
ARISE project wave flume testing at Deltares
Scientists have built a 50-metre scale replica of a coral reef island to explore how its real-life counterparts might be impacted by rising sea levels.
The model has been designed to mimic atoll islands in the Maldives and the Pacific Ocean, thought to be among the most vulnerable parts of the planet as the climate changes.
Over the coming two months, it will be subjected to varying wave and sea-level conditions, with its response being intensely monitored using wave sensors, current meters, video cameras and laser scanners.
Researchers hope the experiment, combined with fieldwork and numerical modelling, will give them an indication of precisely how the islands might respond if sea levels and the frequency of extreme weather events continue to increase.
The experiment forms part of the ARISE project, a five-year £2.8million project led by the University of Plymouth and funded through UK Research and Innovation’s Horizon Europe Guarantee programme.
With partners across the world, including organisations in the Maldives and the Pacific, the project is exploring the potential for the world’s low-lying coral atoll islands to survive predicted rises in sea level through natural flooding processes.

It is virtually impossible to record waves washing over a real atoll island, because the chances of an extreme event occurring on an instrumented island is very rare – you’d have to be instrumenting at least tens of islands spread across the Maldives and the Pacific to catch it. This scale model will give us the opportunity to run a controlled series of scenarios and monitor with a range of instruments how the island might respond in a variety of present and future sea conditions. Combined with other measurements from the field, we hope it will give us a clear understanding of if – and how – these communities can survive in future.

Gerd MasselinkGerd Masselink
Professor of Coastal Geomorphology

The experiment is a collaboration between the University of Plymouth, Delft University of Technology, and Deltares. It will take place in the Deltares’ Delta Flume, the world’s largest wave flume.
Measuring 300m long, 9m deep and 5m wide, and with the ability to generate waves up to 2m high, the flume is the perfect place for this particular experiment.
It will also enable the researchers to evaluate the impact of artificial reef structures in reducing the energy of the waves reaching the island shoreline.
Such structures are increasingly being used as eco-friendly coastal defences that provide habitats for marine life as well as protecting island shorelines.
Professor Gerd Masselink with colleagues from TU Delft and Deltares - ARISE programme
Professor Gerd Masselink with colleagues from TU Delft and Deltares - ARISE programme
Professor Gerd Masselink with colleagues from TU Delft and Deltares - ARISE programme

Coral reefs naturally protect atoll islands from wave-driven flooding, but unfortunately, they are degrading worldwide. This experiment provides a unique opportunity to investigate the efficiency of reef restoration for coastal protection. Up to 150 eco-friendly, complex-shaped artificial reef structures will be installed on the reef of the scale model, and their effect on the waves will be systematically analysed. The large scale of this experiment is essential, as it allows us to get a realistic picture of how water moves through these complex structures, and thus of how the structures influence the wave field and ultimately flooding at the island.

Dr Marion Tissier
Assistant Professor of Coastal Waves at Delft University of Technology

We have built a scale model of a reef platform with an atoll island in the Deltares Delta Flume. With this unique, experimental facility, we can generate the largest artificial waves in the world, which makes it the perfect place to assess the effect of waves washing over an atoll island. The model is equipped with numerous sensors, which gives us detailed information about the wave heights, velocities and pressures along the reef platform and the overwash over the atoll island.

Suzanna Zwanenburg
Project Leader of the Deltares Delta Flume 
The new experiment is being launched weeks after scientists returned from the Maldives, where they deployed more than 80 individual instruments on the island of Dighelaabadhoo as they seek to capture in-depth information about the energetic wave conditions during southwest monsoon season in the Indian Ocean.
The measurements generated by the instrumentation will constitute the largest field campaign ever to be staged on an atoll island, and the instruments will remain deployed until August.
In the spring of 2024, researchers from the University of Plymouth carried out extensive fieldwork in the Maldives as part of the ARISE project
 

Natural adaptation of atoll islands to sea-level rise offering opportunities for ongoing human occupation (ARISE)

It is generally accepted that overwash is key to atoll island survival, but further research is required to increase our quantitative understanding of overwash processes and transform the enhanced insights into practice by developing management tools. 
The overarching aim of the ARISE project is to revolutionise our capability to model the physical impacts of sea-level rise on atoll islands to aid in the formulation, development and implementation of transformative climate-change adaptation strategies for atoll island communities.
Atoll island

Coastal Processes Research Group 

The Coastal Processes Research Group is an internationally recognised group of researchers, specialising in field studies of coastal processes and seeking to understand and predict the behaviour of coastal and estuarine systems. Research topics include:
  • beach morphodynamics and nearshore sediment transport
  • coastal erosion and storm impacts
  • video monitoring of coastal systems
  • coastal process modelling
  • estuarine processes and evolution.
The group operates a research-informed consultancy Coastal Marine Applied Research.
Coastal Processes Research Group Perranporth beach