Vegetation on foreshores in close vicinity to sea dikes may prove beneficial as regulating ecosystem service in the context of coastal defense, dike safety, and flood protection by reducing loads on these defense structures. Predominantly, a decrease in wave heights and bottom shear stresses is hypothesized, which calls for an inclusion in design procedures of coastal defense structures. In contrast to heterogeneous and variable salt marsh vegetation, this study uses surrogate vegetation models for systematic hydraulic experiments in a wave flume, without modeling specific plant species a priori. Froude-scale experiments are performed in order to investigate the effect of salt marsh vegetation on the wave transformation processes on the foreshore and wave run-up at sea dikes. The effect of plant and wave properties on wave transmission, energy dissipation, and wave run-up at a 1:6 sloped smooth dike are presented and discussed, focusing on the wave–vegetation–structure interaction. Vegetated foreshores can contribute to wave attenuation, where an increasing relative vegetation height h_v/h results in decreased wave run-up on the dike by up to 16.5% at h_v/h = 1.0.

A ship in motion generates a complex wave field consisting of several superimposed wave systems. The relevance of the wave systems' components varies, depending on individual ship and waterway parameters. This review work is specifically concerned with the long-period, primary wave system, large-volume ships travelling through confined waterways, generate, as it may exert intensive wave and current loading on the banks, affecting local morphology, engineering structures and ecology So far, the effect of ship-generated waves on waterway embankments has yet only routinely been considered for inland waterways with a constant cross-section. Less attention has been payed to the ship-induced wave and current loading in more complex bathymetries like coastal waterways and estuaries, as naturally occurring loads had been thought to dominate. However, the hydrodynamic loads induced by ships grow and become increasingly relevant in coastal waterways, due to continuously growing dimensions of sea-going ships. At the same time, requirements rise to allow for restoring the ecological value of of inland and coastal waterways, leading to spatially more diverse bathymetries and embankment structures. Hence, the prediction of ship-generated primary wave magnitudes at banks becomes increasingly complex, due to deformation processes of the propagating waves in shallow water. Knowledge on ship-generated waves characteristics and methods to predict induced loads are thus essential for the assessment of bank stability and the dimensioning of engineering structures to resist present-day and prospective ship-induced loads. This review paper compiles, analyzes and assesses the findings of previous research quantifying the relevance of primary waves for the surrounding waterways and shows interconnections to the questions studied within naval hydrodynamics for confined waterways. Commonly applied methods for wave prediction are reviewed, highlighting their relevance and limitations. Finally, a concept for coupled numerical model development is suggested, based on the success of different modelling approaches presented previously.

Underwater dunes are a morphological feature that are explored by marine scientists and coastal engineers alike. This study presents new methodologies in order to simplify bedform identification and morphodynamic analyses. Specifically, subaqueous compound dunes are decomposed with a simple yet extensive tracking algorithm, which relies on a repeated evaluation of unfiltered bed elevation profiles according to five predefined length classes. In a second step, morphological trends are assessed in the form of bed migration rates, bed slope asymmetries and net sediment changes, in which all parameters are referred to equidistant sections of the examined fairway stretch. This integrated approach not only avoids the challenges in weighting the varying size and abundance of dunes of different scales but also ensures comparability between dune‐specific and areal parameters, which significantly improves the interpretation of the morphological setting as a whole. The developed methods are applied to the Outer Jade fairway, an anthropogenically influenced and regularly maintained waterway in the German Bight, and allow scrutiny of spatio‐temporal trends in this region.Based on a unique data set of 100 sequential high‐quality echo‐sounding surveys, various types of bedforms are identified, comprising large‐scale primary as well as superimposing secondary dunes that are assumed to interfere with each other. Temporal trends show a long‐term rise of the troughs of major bedforms and constant maximum crest elevations near the official maintenance depth, which matches the observed long‐term aggradation of sediments. The spatial distribution of integrated morphodynamic parameters reflects a previously described zone of primary dune convergence and facilitates the precise localization of this geophysical singularity. The presented findings both confirm the robustness of the proposed methodologies and, in return, enhance the understanding of morphological processes in the Outer Jade. © 2020 The Authors. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Novel strategies in coastal protection are needed to cope with climate change-induced sea level rise. They aim at the sustainable development of coastal areas in light of intensification and land use changes. A promising approach is the design of nature-based solutions (NbS), complementing the safety levels of technical infrastructure. However, NbS lack a widespread and large-scale implementation. To address this deficit, co-design concepts are needed that combine experiences from science and practice. This work presents and discusses the approach of a coast-specific real-world laboratory (RwL) addressing the inclusive design of ecosystem-based coastal protection. Strategies of RwLs are applied for the first time in a coastal context along the North Sea coastline in Germany. We found the concept of RwLs suitable for coastal transdisciplinary research, although adaptions in the spatial reference level or flexibility in location and time of experimentation are necessary. A profound actor analysis is indispensable to specify participatory processes and interaction levels. A criteria-based cooperative selection of RwL sites helps to reveal and solve conflicting interests to achieve trust between science and practice. Addressing site-specific characteristics and practitioners’ needs, our coastal RwL provides a mutual learning space to develop and test NbS to complement technical coastal protection.

Besides the natural protection of coastal dunes against storm surges (Mehrtens et al., 2023), blue-grey-hybrid dune structures play a key role in strengthening the protective mechanism of dunes against erosion, while imitating their natural landform appearance and function (Nordstrom 2019). Although artificial dunes with hybrid core enhancements are widespreadly implemented along many coasts worldwide (Winters et al., 2020), limited work addressed the effectiveness and potential enhancement of specific dune reinforcement strategies in a comparative fashion. An exception to this statement is the work by Figlus et al (2015), who conducted a series of experiments with three incorporated dune cores: a T-wall, a clay levee and an armour stone revetment. Nonetheless, a benchmark study on the efficacy and comparative performance of hybrid dune reinforcement strategies, with an identical parameter frame remains unavailable to date.