Protecting Canada's coasts from extreme waves and water levels

极端的海浪和高水位在世界各地的海岸造成了最大的自然灾害。这些强大的条件可以通过非常不同的方式产生，例如，来自强风风暴或来自进入水中的山体滑坡。飓风是一种强烈的风暴，会产生巨大的海浪，并可能造成大片海岸侵蚀。山体滑坡引发的海啸可能会造成洪水泛滥和破坏，远远超出海岸线。最近在世界各地发生的毁灭性飓风和海啸突显了这些事件造成的巨大生命损失和代价。例如，2017年是大西洋有记录以来最严重的飓风季节之一。一系列大风暴迅速造成了广泛的破坏，预计美国和加勒比海地区的总损失将超过2900亿美元。飓风是由温暖的海洋温度推动的，因此气候变化可能会增加这些风暴的频率和强度，使这种危险的情况在未来变得更糟。除了飓风，最近一场由山体滑坡引发的致命海啸在2017年6月摧毁了格陵兰岛的一个沿海社区。需要更好地了解这些类型的巨浪，以制定更好的工程解决方案，以抵御极端力量并保护公众。*拟议的研究将培养10名学生成为不同级别的海岸工程专家。这些学生将研究飓风和海啸的强强迫条件，以发现强烈的海浪条件与沿海环境之间的相互作用，这些相互作用将因未来的气候变化而加剧。这项研究计划的目标被定义在三个相关的主题中。第一个主题将探讨极端飓风条件，因为风暴从公开水域移动到沿海地区登陆，在那里它们会造成洪水和侵蚀。第二个主题涉及通过在一系列实验室实验中释放山体滑坡来触发海啸，并应用这些结果来改进对波浪演变和影响的预测。第三个主题包括波浪的现场、实验室和数值模拟，以加深对近岸物理的理解，近岸物理支配着波浪在海滩上冲破和移动沙子的方式。*该研究计划旨在为控制海浪的基本过程提供新的见解，并能够更好地预测湖泊和海洋中沿海环境的变化。这项研究将使加拿大受益，因为它将培训新的沿海工程师，并为工程师、科学家、管理人员和政策制定者提供关键信息。这些发现将对改善对沿海基础设施和环境的保护产生广泛影响，旨在减少这些自然灾害造成的生命损失和重建基础设施的成本。

Extreme waves and high water levels create the greatest natural hazards on coasts around the world. These powerful conditions can be generated in very different ways, for example from strong wind storms or from landslides into water. Hurricanes are one type of intense wind storm that generate huge ocean waves and can cause massive swaths of coastal erosion. Tsunamis driven by landslides can cause flooding and destruction well beyond the shoreline. Recent devastating hurricanes and tsunamis around the world highlight the high loss of human life and cost caused by these events. For example, 2017 was one of the worst hurricane seasons on record in the Atlantic Ocean. A series of major storms rapidly delivered widespread damage with a projected combined cost of over $290 billion in the US and the Caribbean. Hurricanes are fueled by warm ocean temperatures, so climate change is likely to increase the frequency and intensity of these storms making this dangerous situation worse for the future. In addition to hurricanes, a recent and deadly landslide-generated tsunami wiped out a coastal community in Greenland in June 2017. Better understanding of these types of powerful waves is needed to develop better engineering solutions to withstand the extreme forces and protect the public.******The proposed research will train 10 students to become coastal engineering experts at different levels. These students will investigate strong forcing conditions from hurricanes and tsunamis to discover the interactions between intense wave conditions and the coastal environment that will be intensified by future changes in climate. The goals of this research program have been defined in three related themes. The first theme will explore extreme hurricane conditions as storms move from open water to coastal regions landfall where they cause flooding and erosion. The second theme involves triggering tsunamis by releasing landslides in a set of laboratory experiments and applying the results to improve prediction of wave evolution and impact. The third theme includes field, laboratory and numerical modelling of waves to develop improved understanding of the nearshore physics that governs the way waves break and move sand on beaches. ******The research program is designed to provide new insight concerning the fundamental processes governing waves and enable better predictions of changes to coastal environments in lakes and oceans. This research will benefit Canada by training new coastal engineers, and providing critical information for engineers, scientists, managers and policy makers. The discoveries will have broad implications for improving protection of coastal infrastructure and the environment, aimed at reducing the loss of life and the cost to rebuild infrastructure caused by these natural hazards.