Proto-type Experiment of Sediment Transport in Shallow water

预测有多少沙子在海浪和洋流下移动，以什么速度移动，以及它去哪里的能力，对于管理我们的沿海工业，港口，海港，航线，海上能源基础设施，海滩，河口，悬崖及其保护的低洼沿海环境至关重要。在预期海平面上升和沿海海洋利用率提高的背景下，这一点尤其如此。海岸侵蚀和洪水对居民点和自然资源的影响得到了广泛的宣传，但不幸的是，我们预测损害的位置和程度的能力仍然很差，特别是在多年的时间尺度上。设计和预测沿海工程项目的寿命也需要这些信息，以减轻侵蚀和洪水对社会、生态和经济的重要影响。考虑到目前的知识状况，改进这种预测的最大飞跃将来自于更好地了解是什么控制了构成海底的沉积物的运输方向和速度。就像预测天气一样，海岸工程领域的研究人员的目标是制作沉积物输运及其对海底形状造成的变化的准确业务模型。该项目的动机是观察到，随着水深减少到只有几米，沉积物输运预测逐渐变差（即靠近陆地：可以说是最重要的区域），因为我们对非常小规模的过程了解不足，其重要性日益增加。直到最近，在这种小尺度上准确和快速测量的传感技术还不存在。幸运的是，现在存在能够以所需分辨率测量流速的商用传感器。此外，我们最近与项目合作伙伴一起开发并测试了新的传感器，这些传感器可以为我们提供有关水中沉积物数量以及海床如何随单个波浪演变的信息。通过在“真人大小”的波浪水槽中使用这些新的传感技术进行详细的实验室实验，我们的目标是进一步了解所有这些在浅水中似乎更重要的非常小的尺度过程。我们的目标是利用这些小尺度沉积物输运过程的知识，并将其应用于模型中，以预测海床的变化。通过在波浪水槽中对海床演变进行测量，我们将能够确定这些不同的过程中哪些是最重要的，以及将它们纳入预测海岸线演变的模型的最佳方法。我们的目标是公开整个数据集-使用与数据库相连的网络应用程序，使用户能够方便地指定其数据要求和数据格式，从而提供和负责。海岸工程和规划界将能够免费浏览、探索和下载这些数据。软件开发人员和环境顾问将能够利用这套数据作为基准，用以测试今后的沉积物迁移和海岸演变模型。最后，其他科学家将能够轻松地审查我们的发现，并将数据用于自己的分析，这将成为这一重要研究领域未来进展的基础。

The ability to predict how much sand moves under ocean waves and currents, at what rate, and where it goes, is critical for managing our coastal industries, ports, harbours, shipping routes, offshore energy infrastructures, beaches, estuaries, cliffs and the low-lying coastal environments they protect. This is particularly true in a setting of expected sea level rise and enhanced utilization of the coastal ocean.The effects of coastal erosion and flooding to settlements and natural resources is widely publicised, yet unfortunately our ability to predict the location and extent of damage remains poor, particularly over the timescale of years. This information is also required to design and predict the life of coastal engineering projects to mitigate the socially, ecologically and economically important impacts of erosion and flooding. Considering the state of current knowledge, the biggest leaps in improving such predictions, will come from improved understanding of what controls the direction and rate of transport of the sediment which makes up the seabed. Just like predicting the weather, the goal of researchers in the field of coastal engineering is to produce accurate operational models of sediment transport and the resulting changes caused to the shape of the seabed.This project is motivated by the observation that sediment transport predictions get progressively worse as water depths decrease to just a few metres (i.e. near land: arguably the most important area) because of the increasing importance of very small-scale processes of which we have inadequate understanding. Until recently, sensing technologies to measure accurately and rapidly at this small scale did not exist. Fortunately, commercially-available sensors now exist which are able to measure flow speeds at the required resolution. In addition, in conjunction with our project partners we have recently developed and tested new sensors which can provide us information on how much sediment is in the water, and how the seabed evolves over individual waves. By conducting detailed laboratory experiments with these new sensing technologies in a 'life-size' wave flume, we aim to further our understanding of all these very small scale processes which appear to be more important in shallow water.We aim to use the knowledge gained about these small scale sediment transport processes and implement them in models to predict the resulting changes to the seabed. By using measurements of this bed evolution taking in the wave flume, we'll be able to identify which of these various processes are most important, and what is the best way to incorporate them into models which predict the evolution of our coastline.Finally, we aim to make the entire data set publicly-available and accountable using a database linked web application which permits the user to easily specify their data requirements and data format. The coastal engineering and planning community will be able to browse, explore and download the data freely. Software developers and environmental consultants will be able to use the data set as a benchmark with which to test future models of sediment transport and coastal evolution. Finally, other scientists will be able to easily scrutinise our findings and use the data for their own analyses, which will serve as the basis for future progress in this important field of research.