Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/R009155/1
Quantitative Assessment Tool for Wind Effect on Wave Overtopping Seawalls
Grant Award
- Principal Investigator:
- Dr JG Zhou, Manchester Metropolitan University, Sch of Computing, Maths and Digital Tech
- Co-Investigator:
- Professor C Mingham, Manchester Metropolitan University, Sch of Computing, Maths and Digital Tech
- Co-Investigator:
- Professor DM Causon, Manchester Metropolitan University, Sch of Computing, Maths and Digital Tech
- Co-Investigator:
- Professor NWH Allsop, H R Wallingford Ltd, Coastal Structures
- Co-Investigator:
- Dr T Pullen, H R Wallingford Ltd, Coastal Structures
- Co-Investigator:
- Professor L Qian, Manchester Metropolitan University, Ctr for Advanced Computational Science
- Science Area:
- Atmospheric
- Earth
- Freshwater
- Marine
- Terrestrial
- Overall Classification:
- Unknown
- ENRIs:
- Biodiversity
- Environmental Risks and Hazards
- Global Change
- Natural Resource Management
- Pollution and Waste
- Science Topics:
- Regional climate
- Sea level rise
- Climate & Climate Change
- Beaches
- Breakwaters
- Climatic Effects
- Coastal Defences
- Flood Defences
- Flood Risk Assessment
- Flooding
- Seawalls
- Wave Over-Topping
- Coastal & Waterway Engineering
- Waves
- Coastal flooding
- Sea level variation
- Land - Ocean Interactions
- Land - Ocean Interactions
- Coastal flooding
- Sea level variation
- Databases
- Flood risk assessment
- Environmental Informatics
- Abstract:
- Climate change is expected to result in stronger and more frequent winds, storms and sea level rise, leading to more severe adverse effects on infrastructure such as flooding damage to buildings, power stations, railways and sea defences. The effects of this natural hazard have been frequently seen in recent flooding events in the UK and other countries worldwide. Over recent years, Royal HaskoningDHV has reported that wind effects on wave overtopping has become an increasing concern for the design of modern sea defences and the management of coastal flood risk. This threat can cause unexpected coastal flooding and pose additional flooding risks to coastal infrastructure, particularly in the UK as an island nation. Currently, there is no reliable tool to quantify such risk. Present engineering practice is to either (i) ignore wind effects, which would put protected areas at risk, or (ii) include a large safety margin, which would significantly increase the cost of coastal defences unnecessarily. The safety margin method is also restricted to existing known coastal scenarios and cannot provide reliable assessment of the risks as climate changes. This is a clear knowledge gap that causes a growing concern for the ability to adequately and economically control coastal flood risk. The proposed project brings together leading experts from Manchester Metropolitan University, Royal HaskoningDHV, HR Wallingford, Environment Agency, EDF Energy and Torbay Council to address the concerns by developing a novel assessment tool to quantify wind effects on wave overtopping. Its aim is to translate the powerful two-fluid model from Manchester Metropolitan University into an engineering tool to quantify wind effects on wave overtopping, accounting for the effects of sea level rise. The objectives are to (a) adapt an advanced in-house two-fluid model for wind effects on wave overtopping, (b) validate the model rigorously against physical modelling tests undertaken at HR Wallingford, field data and real engineering application cases including ongoing or recently completed projects with the Environment Agency, SEPA and EDF Energy by Royal HaskoningDHV, (c) build a companion database to facilitate efficient assessment of the risk in design and management, and (d) enclose the tool and database in a simple user-friendly interface for efficient management and control of coastal flooding. Key activities also include visits to Heysham and Torbay for the collection of sea defence data and past event data where wind effects were significant on wave overtopping. The project partners will contribute to the supervision and steering of the project and provide real cases and data. This will be the first practical tool for accurately quantifying wind effects on wave overtopping. It will inform and improve current engineering practice, removing the need for large safety margins to account for wind effects in infrastructure design and assessment. The main deliverables and outputs will be an assessment tool and a companion database. These tools will be used by Royal HaskoningDHV in the flood risk assessment, engineering design and coastal flood forecasting system, by EDF Energy to enhance the assessment of risks of coastal flooding to existing and new build power plants, by the Environment Agency for an improved coastal flood warning service and by Torbay Council for improving the flood risk management and supporting decisions relating to future development and emergency planning. The developed tool has the potential to become a vital design tool in assessing wind effects on wave overtopping, benefiting various organisations such as the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Natural Resources Wales, Network Rail and Transport Scotland for the multiple purposes of planning strategic or investment decisions in management of coastal flooding risks to infrastructure. The project will last 14 months with a total cost of #159k at 80% FEC.
- NERC Reference:
- NE/R009155/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- Innovation
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- Innovation - Risk
This grant award has a total value of £160,618
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| DI - Other Costs | Indirect - Indirect Costs | DA - Investigators | DA - Estate Costs | DI - Staff | DA - Other Directly Allocated | DI - T&S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £25,162 | £46,721 | £22,034 | £15,824 | £37,629 | £1,034 | £12,214 |
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