SUBDUNE tool: quasi-explicit formulation of the water level along the shoreline

SUBDUNE v0.6 is a very preliminary version of an exploratory model designed tocompute the sea level to the shoreline, combining the effects of various physics, from run-up to tides. It aims at providing an easy-to-use and quick way to estimate water elevation to the beach, assuming morphology is known. Combined with accurate beachdata, such as LIDAR, this engineering tool may provide with end-users an efficient way to quantify submersion

Shifting sands? Coastal protection by sand banks, beaches and dunes

In a closely integrated system, (sub-) littoral sandy sediments, sandy beaches, and sand dunes offer natural coastal protection for a host of environmentally and economically important areas and activities inland. Flooding and coastal erosion pose a serious threat to these environments, a situation likely to be exacerbated by factors associatedwith climate change. Despite their importance, these sandy ‘soft’ defences have been lost from many European coasts through the proliferation of coastal development and associated hard-engineering and face further losses due to sea-level rise, subsidence, storm surge events, and coastal squeeze. As part of the EU-funded THESEUS project we investigated the critical drivers that determine the persistence and maintenance of sandy coastal habitats around Europe's coastline, taking particular interest in their close link with the biological communities that inhabit them. The successful management of sandy beaches to restore and sustain sand budgets (e.g. via nourishment), depends on the kind of mitigation undertaken, local beach characteristics, and on the source of ‘borrowed’ sediment. We found that inter-tidal invertebrates were good indicators of changes linked to different mitigation options. For sand dunes, field observations and manipulative experiments investigated different approaches to create new dune systems, in addition to measures employed to improve dune stabilisation. THESEUS provides a ‘toolbox’ of management strategies to aid the management, restoration, and creation of sandy habitats along our coastlines, butwe note that futuremanagementmust consider the connectivity of sub-littoral and supra-littoral sandy habitats in order to use this natural shoreline defence more effectivel

C.: Shifting sands? Coastal protection by sand banks, beaches and dunes

In a closely integrated system, (sub-) littoral sandy sediments, sandy beaches, and sand dunes offer natural coastal protection for a host of environmentally and economically important areas and activities inland. Flooding and coastal erosion pose a serious threat to these environments, a situation likely to be exacerbated by factors associated with climate change. Despite their importance, these sandy 'soft' defences have been lost from many European coasts through the proliferation of coastal development and associated hard-engineering and face further losses due to sea-level rise, subsidence, storm surge events, and coastal squeeze. As part of the EU-funded THESEUS project we investigated the critical drivers that determine the persistence and maintenance of sandy coastal habitats around Europe's coastline, taking particular interest in their close link with the biological communities that inhabit them. The successful management of sandy beaches to restore and sustain sand budgets (e.g. via nourishment), depends on the kind of mitigation undertaken, local beach characteristics, and on the source of 'borrowed' sediment. We found that inter-tidal invertebrates were good indicators of changes linked to different mitigation options. For sand dunes, field observations and manipulative experiments investigated different approaches to create new dune systems, in addition to measures employed to improve dune stabilisation. THESEUS provides a 'toolbox' of management strategies to aid the management, restoration, and creation of sandy habitats along our coastlines, but we note that future management must consider the connectivity of sub-littoral and supra-littoral sandy habitats in order to use this natural shoreline defence more effectively

Interaction des sables et Posidonia oceanica avec l'environnement des dunes naturelles - Les syst\ue8mes de d\ue9fense naturels: le potentiel des dunes et des prairies de Posidonie pour la d\ue9fense des littoraux

Dans l'objectif de faire progresser davantage encore les connaissances techniques pour la gestion du syst\ue8me dunes-plages, on propose de mettre en oeuvre des op\ue9rations vis\ue9es au bilan d'exp\ue9rience en mati\ue8re de restauration et de protection des cordons dunaires et \ue0 l'\ue9change d'experiences \ue0 d\ue9velopper dans ce domaine. La protection des dunes coti\ue8res est habituellement approch\ue9e en employant les techniques traditionneles de la protection biotechnique, aptes \ue0 r\ue9duire l'\ue9rosion du vent et l'impact de la pression antropog\ue8ne. Le but de la pr\ue9sente mesure est aussi celui d'\ue9valuer l'efficacit\ue9 de nouvelles technologies biologiques. En suivant cette approche, il est pr\ue9vu le d\ue9clencement des m\ue9canismes positifs de r\ue9troaction entre la biologie et la s\ue9dimentologie, aussi bien qu'une augmentationde la flexibilit\ue9, de la r\ue9silience et de la stabilit\ue9 dynamique du syst\ue8me dunes-plage