Research: Protecting coastlines from wind-blown waves

Research summary

• February 2018 to August 2019

This project explored the effect of wave overtopping - the process of wind-blown waves surging over coastline structures such as sea walls and embankments.

Climate change is amplifying the strength and frequency of winds, storms and hurricanes - increasing the severity of damage to coastal infrastructure worldwide.

And coastal engineers have lacked the necessary tools to quantify the effects of wave overtopping, and minimise the potential damage to UK coastlines.

Our research led to the development of an assessment tool - QatWeWos - that consists of a simulator, database and user interface.

The simulation visualises the side profile of a wave affected by wind, while a companion database - that holds basic combinations of wind, wave and sea defence data - predicts the increase in the volume of overtopping wave water.

The tool can be easily accessed to help coastal engineers and policymakers improve the design of sea defences and management of flood risk.

Royal HaskoningDHV, a leading coastal engineering firm, has completed a project for Torbay Council to identify the significance of wind effect on wave overtopping and subsequent flooding using our tool.

Research outputs

• De Chowdhury, S, Zhou, JG, Khait, A, Causon, D, Qian, L et al (2021) Local overshoot and wind effects on wave overtopping at vertical coastal structures Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers: Maritime Engineering
• De Chowdhury, S, Zhou, JG, Causon, D, Qian, L, Mingham, C et al (2021) Wind effects on wave overtopping at the vertical sea defence Proceedings of virtual Conference on Coastal Engineering
• De Chowdhury, S, Causon, D, Qian, L, Mingham, C, Chen, H et al (2019) Investigation of Wind Effects on Wave Overtopping at Sea Defences, Hannover, Germany, pp 841-850