RII Track-4:NSF: From the Ground Up to the Air Above Coastal Dunes: How Groundwater and Evaporation Affect the Mechanism of Wind Erosion

RII Track-4：NSF：从地面到沿海沙丘上方的空气：地下水和蒸发如何影响风蚀机制

• 批准号: 2327346
• 负责人: Luis Zambrano-Cruzatty
• 金额: $ 22.03万
• 依托单位: University of Maine
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-01-01 至 2025-12-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2327346&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RII; Track; NSF; Ground; Up

Coastal dunes are an essential feature that protects coastal areas from storms and sea-level rise, provides habitat for plant and animal species, and generates income for coastal populations through tourism and protective services. However, various stressors, including wind erosion and human activities, limit their capacity as protective barriers. Despite advancements in modeling and forecasting coastal dune evolution, unresolved mechanisms and their interactions limit the accuracy and reliability of erosion predictive models. This project aims to investigate those unresolved mechanisms, particularly studying the effects of groundwater elevation and evaporation on the mechanisms of wind erosion and the evolution of coastal dunes, which have yet to be thoroughly explored. The project will use a cutting-edge wind tunnel outfitted with high-precision and robust instrumentation and a computer-based model to link subsurface flow and the air above. The study's outcomes will provide insights into the processes linking atmospheric and subsurface phenomena on the wind erosion of coastal dunes. The findings can help identify vulnerable zones in coastal dunes, reduce hazards, and improve the resilience of coastal populations. Additionally, the results can lead to the development of erosion control techniques by analyzing the effects of vegetation and water content regulation mechanisms.This Research Infrastructure Improvement Track-4 EPSCoR Research Fellows (RII Track-4) project will provide a fellowship to an Assistant professor and training for a graduate student at the University of Maine. This work would be conducted in collaboration with researchers at the University of Florida. The project is based on the fundamental hypothesis that the mechanism of wind erosion in coastal dunes is significantly influenced by the competition between water evaporating from the dune to the wind flow and the repletion that occurs from the groundwater table to the surface by capillary rise, subsequently affecting its erodibility. This is a groundbreaking concept as it considers the role of groundwater elevation and capillary rise on the erodibility of coastal dunes for the first time. This hypothesis will be tested experimentally with a novel series of wind tunnel tests that will be carried out at the University of Florida's NSF Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel facility, part of the National Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure facilities (NHERI). Furthermore, an analytical model based on solving mass conservation of water in the sand subsurface and the air above will provide the means to validate and extend the results of the wind tunnel experiments for large-scale and long-term conditions using the finite element method. The results of this study will provide insights into the processes linking atmospheric and subsurface phenomena to the wind erosion of coastal dunes.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

沿海沙丘是保护沿海地区免受风暴和海平面上升影响的一个基本特征，为动植物物种提供生境，并通过旅游业和保护服务为沿海人口创造收入。然而，各种压力因素，包括风蚀和人类活动，限制了它们作为保护屏障的能力。尽管在模拟和预测海岸沙丘演变方面取得了进展，但尚未解决的机制及其相互作用限制了侵蚀预测模型的准确性和可靠性。该项目旨在调查这些尚未解决的机制，特别是研究地下水水位升高和蒸发对风蚀机制和沿海沙丘演变的影响，这些机制尚待深入探讨。该项目将使用一个尖端的风洞，配备高精度和强大的仪器和基于计算机的模型，以连接地下流和上方的空气。这项研究的结果将有助于深入了解大气和地下现象与沿海沙丘风蚀之间的联系过程。这些发现可以帮助确定沿海沙丘的脆弱区域，减少灾害，提高沿海人口的复原力。此外，研究结果可以导致侵蚀控制技术的发展，通过分析植被和水含量调节mechanism.This研究基础设施改善轨道-4 EPSCoR研究员（RII轨道-4）项目将提供奖学金的助理教授和培训的研究生在缅因州的大学。这项工作将与佛罗里达大学的研究人员合作进行。该项目所依据的基本假设是，沿海沙丘的风蚀机制受到沙丘蒸发到风流中的水与通过毛细上升从地下水位到地表的补充之间的竞争的重大影响，从而影响其可侵蚀性。这是一个突破性的概念，因为它首次考虑了地下水水位和毛细上升对沿海沙丘可蚀性的作用。将在佛罗里达大学的NSF边界层风洞设施（国家灾害工程研究基础设施（NHERI）的一部分）进行一系列新的风洞试验，对这一假设进行实验检验。此外，一个分析模型的基础上解决质量守恒的水在沙子的地下和空气以上将提供的手段，验证和扩展的结果，风洞实验的大规模和长期的条件下，使用有限元法。这项研究的结果将提供深入了解的过程中连接大气和地下现象的风蚀海岸沙丘。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得支持，通过评估使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。