Coastal Processes Research Group (CPRG) – projects

• The project comprises three main types of activities – data collection and analysis, numerical model development, model application for management. New knowledge and understanding of atoll island response to SLR will be obtained using unprecedented laboratory experiments (in the Delta Flume, Netherlands) and field measurements (in the Maldives and Pacific).
• The unique data sets acquired will be used to develop, calibrate and validate hydro- and morphodynamic numerical models (using the XBeach suite of models). These models will then be deployed in an innovative modelling framework to evaluate the role of the various processes involved in the island response. Finally, the modelling tools will be deployed to enable atoll island communities to implement adaptation strategies that maximise opportunities for continued habitation.

• The principal aim of the project is to enhance understanding of gravel barrier systems and improve predictive capability to support more sustainable coastal management, increase overall coastal zone resilience and reduce vulnerability to climate change.
• Approach: (1) develop a UK-wide gravel barrier typology encompassing morpho-sedimentary structure and dynamics; (2) collect and analyse field data of event-scale gravel barrier dynamics; (3) collect and analyse laboratory data, and derive new equations for key processes; (4) develop new predictive capability for gravel barrier dynamics over short- to long-term time scales, accounting for cross-shore and longshore sediment transport; and (5) apply new understanding and enhanced numerical capability to project future dynamics of gravel barriers.

• The aim of the Making Space for Sand Project is to encourage the more sustainable use and development of the coastal fringe to allow for a more natural, ecosystem approach to coastal management where traditional coastal protection is not possible.
• Contribution of University of Plymouth to the project is to increase our understanding of the impacts of sandy beach-dune systems to sea-level rise and develop tools to predict these impacts.

• NERC and Met Office £300,000 funded project.
• Aims to improve the current understanding of wave overtopping hazard using AI and EO applications in coastal areas.
• The project will 'build a deployable coastal overtopping warning tool (SPLASH) with the vision of transforming weather and climate research and services through transformative technologies.'
• It is one of the five projects awarded within the Twinning Capability for the Natural Environment (TWINE) programme.

• NERC £176,000 funded project through NERC’s Constructing a Digital Environment programme.
• CreamT is a 2-year project led by Liverpool NOC and aims to demonstrate a new coastal hazard monitoring and alert system that has the potential to be integrated into National Monitoring Networks across the UK.
• Aims to develop an automated smart flood and coastal erosion hazard monitoring system to measure hazards at the point-of-impact.
• Aims to develop a new web service to collate, format, harmonise and expose existing disparate national hazard data.
• Aims to expand citizen-led coastal erosion monitoring initiatives and increase the public’s awareness of coastal hazards

• Seagrasses are of significant importance ecologically, but may also serve an important natural coastal protection function by extracting energy from waves and currents, and thus promoting sedimentation processes. As a result, seagrasses possess significant ‘natural capital’, that is, are of value to our society through the various services they provide. However, how exactly moving seagrass fronds effect wave, current and sediment transport processes and to what extent they promote sedimentation and provide natural coastal protection is largely unknown.
• An extensive research programme was executed in September and October 2020, comprising of mapping, sediment sampling and instrument deployment.

• Develop a new numerical modelling system (ForCE), capable of tracking and forecasting key resilience indicators for erosion and accretion of sedimentary coastlines, on time-scales of days to decades, facilitating evidenced-based coastal management.
• Establish and disseminate a unique online dataset for calibrating and rigorously testing the ForCE and other coastal evolution models.
• Establish a forum of UK and international coastal scientists, managers (Environment Agency) and forecasters (Met Office) with the collective goal of developing a management framework and state indicators, (based on the ForCE model output), which are indicative of the current and future health and resilience of the coast, facilitating evidenced-based coastal management.
• Develop, demonstrate and rigorously test using field-data a near real-time implementation of the ForCE model - coastal state indicator prediction system at two dynamically contrasting UK field sites.

• Ongoing collaboration with various coral reef scientists from the Netherlands, New Zealand and USA.
• Focus on using physical and numerical modelling to investigate the impact of sea-level rise on coral reef islands.

• Island ‘drowning’ is not inevitable as sea levels rise
• Study aims to provide accurate assessment of impact of future sea level rises on coral reef islands

• NERC £400,000 funded project.
• SWEEP wave model to enable better preparation for storm events in the South West.
• Aims to improve the level of detail and accuracy possible when predicting coastal flooding.
• Part of the wider South West Partnership for Environmental and Economic Prosperity (SWEEP) project. A new initiative that will help deliver economic and community benefits to the South West via multiple agencies.

• Collect two extensive field data sets to investigate and parameterise the relation between wave dissipation and rip dynamics over time scales ranging from minutes to days.
• Use the field data to improve, validate and calibrate a numerical model (XBeach) capable of simulating nearshore cell circulation and rip current dynamics.
• Develop a decision-support system (DSS) to predict several days in advance, and for different stages of the tide, the risk presented by rip currents to surf-zone water users.

• Collect detailed field measurements of waves, swash, groundwater and bed level change on a gravel beach during storm conditions.
• Use the detailed field measurements to help develop a computer model to predict storm impact on gravel beaches.
• Collect an extensive data set on storm response on 11 UK gravel barrier systems, representing a range of environmental conditions.
• Use the extended dataset to verify the predictive capability of the storm impact model.
• Develop a tool for end-users for predicting berm formation, overtopping, overwashing and breaching of gravel beaches and barriers.

• Models of bathymetric evolution, in the nearshore region, are of fundamental importance for studies on the coastal impacts of global warming and relative sea level rise.
• Project aims to improve process-based models which are used to simulate onshore, offshore and longshore adjustments in nearshore bathymetry.
• Combination of laboratory experiments (oscillating grid turbulence tank), field measurements, and numerical simulations designed to improve our ability to reproduce observed morphology changes through the inclusion of missing physics.

Further information on completed projects

• Waves Across Shore Platforms (WASP)
• Impact of extreme storms during 2013/14 winter on South West coast of England

• From runup to overwash (RUSH)
• Dynamics of Rip currents and Implications of Beach Safety (DRIBS)
• Wave Hub Impacts on Seabed and Shoreline Processes (WHISSP).