Protecting Canada's coasts from extreme waves and water levels

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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.