Proto-type Experiment of Sediment Transport in Shallow water

能够预测在海浪和洋流下有多少沙子移动，以什么速度移动，以及沙子流向哪里，对于管理我们的沿海工业、港口、港口、航道、近海能源基础设施、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加强利用沿海海洋的情况下，情况尤其如此。海岸侵蚀和洪水对住区和自然资源的影响得到了广泛宣传，但不幸的是，我们预测破坏位置和程度的能力仍然很差，特别是在多年的时间尺度上。还需要这些信息来设计和预测沿海工程项目的寿命，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，改进此类预测的最大飞跃将来自于对控制组成海底的沉积物的方向和速度的更好的理解。就像预测天气一样，海岸工程领域的研究人员的目标是建立准确的泥沙运移和由此引起的海底形状变化的业务模型。该项目的动机是观察到，随着水深减少到只有几米(即陆地附近：可以说是最重要的地区)，泥沙运移预测变得越来越差，因为我们对极小规模过程的重要性越来越大，而我们对这些过程了解不够。直到最近，在如此小的范围内准确和快速测量的传感技术还不存在。幸运的是，现在有商业化的传感器，能够以所需的分辨率测量流速。此外，与我们的项目合作伙伴一起，我们最近开发和测试了新的传感器，可以为我们提供水中有多少沉积物的信息，以及海床在个别海浪中的演变情况。通过在“实物大小”的波浪水槽中对这些新的传感技术进行详细的实验室实验，我们的目标是加深我们对所有这些在浅水中似乎更重要的极小尺度过程的理解。我们的目标是利用所获得的关于这些小尺度泥沙输送过程的知识，并将它们应用于模型中，以预测由此对海底造成的变化。通过使用波浪水槽中对河床演变的测量，我们将能够确定这些不同过程中哪些是最重要的，以及将它们整合到预测我们海岸线演变的模型中的最佳方式是什么。最后，我们的目标是使用一个数据库链接的Web应用程序使整个数据集公开和负责，该应用程序允许用户轻松地指定他们的数据要求和数据格式。沿海工程和规划界将能够免费浏览、探索和下载数据。软件开发人员和环境顾问将能够将这些数据集作为基准，用来测试未来的泥沙输送和海岸演变模型。最后，其他科学家将能够很容易地仔细检查我们的发现，并将数据用于他们自己的分析，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.