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以非常不同的方式产生，例如强风风暴或山体滑坡进入水中。飓风是一种强烈的风暴，它会产生巨大的海浪，并可能导致大规模的海岸侵蚀。由山体滑坡引发的海啸可能导致洪水泛滥，破坏范围远远超出海岸线。最近世界各地发生的毁灭性飓风和海啸突出表明，这些事件造成了巨大的生命损失和代价。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，预计美国和加勒比地区的总损失超过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。除了飓风之外，2017年6月，最近一次致命的滑坡引发的海啸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强大波浪，以开发更好的工程解决方案，以承受极端力量并保护公众。 拟议的研究将培养10名学生成为不同层次的海岸工程专家。这些学生将调查飓风和海啸的强强迫条件，以发现强烈的波浪条件与未来气候变化将加剧的沿海环境之间的相互作用。该研究计划的目标已被定义在三个相关的主题。第一个主题将探讨极端的飓风条件，因为风暴从开放水域移动到沿海地区登陆，在那里它们造成洪水和侵蚀。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引发海啸，并将结果应用于改善对波浪演变和影响的预测。第三个主题包括波浪的实地、实验室和数值模拟，以更好地了解近岸物理学，这种物理学控制着波浪破碎和移动海滩上的沙子的方式。 该研究计划旨在提供有关波浪基本过程的新见解，并能够更好地预测湖泊和海洋沿海环境的变化。这项研究将通过培训新的海岸工程师，并为工程师，科学家，管理人员和决策者提供关键信息，使加拿大受益。这些发现将对改善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费用。

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.