Nature-Inspired Design - Improving Coastal Resilience through Biomimicry

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With the ever-increasing global pressures on the spatial and environmental constraints experienced by coastal areas, coastal engineering will continue to play an important role in the development, maintenance, and protection of coastal communities and their critical infrastructure systems. Recent trends in coastal engineering (i.e., “The Sand Motor” in the Netherlands; the inclusion of coastal forests into tsunami protection plans in Japan, etc.) focused on incorporating natural systems into coastal resilience measures. The rationale for this trend is to improve coastal resilience, while emphasizing the sustainability of the system, reducing long-term maintenance costs, as well as increasing the availability of coastal habitats, carbon sequestration, and the recreational value of coastlines. Challenges associated with incorporating these natural systems into coastal resilience measures stem from a lack of understanding of how these systems fit within standard coastal engineering practices. This is particularly relevant for Canada, where complex processes related to freeze-thaw cycles, ice loading and damming, need to be considered, therefore, design and planning recommendations to account for such effects need to be developed. The proposed research program, outlined here, aims to develop an understanding of how natural systems can be incorporated in, as well as inspire the design of resilient and sustainable coastal protection. The research will inform not only the design of natural features within the coastal system but aims to establish how complex networks of features can provide improved flood resilience. The long-term goal is to provide practicing engineers with the necessary methodologies and tools for accurately reproducing these systems for the development of multi-tiered, holistic, and resilient coastal defence systems within Canada and abroad. Expected Impact The proposed research program is expected to significantly improve the ability and confidence of practicing engineers and coastal zone managers in incorporating natural and nature-inspired systems into coastal protection systems. The development of tools for practicing engineers to confidently assess the performance of nature-inspired systems will be a critical component of the project. Additionally, the improvements in physical modelling techniques will not only benefit coastal engineering, but the hydraulic engineering field as a whole, by developing a better understanding of dynamic structural behaviour under hydraulic loading. Furthermore, this research program will train three (3) PhD and three (3) Master's students in state-of-the-art physical and numerical modelling techniques, thus improving Canada's capacity for nature-based design in hydraulic and coastal engineering.