Innovative Representation of the Coastal Topo-Bathymetry and Subsurface for Flooding and Erosion Risk Reduction

A special issue of Journal of Marine Science and Engineering (ISSN 2077-1312). This special issue belongs to the section "Coastal Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 March 2022) | Viewed by 21113

Image courtesy of Andres Payo

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
British Geological Survey, Nicker Hill, Keyworth, Nottingham NG12 5GG, UK
Interests: decadal coastal morphodynamics in the Anthropocene; coastal flooding and coastal erosion; nearshore processes; soil salinisation on agricultural coastal areas; Earth Observation

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Guest Editor
British Geological Survey, Environmental Science Centre, Nottingham NG12 5GG, UK
Interests: landscape and coastal evolution; climate change; groundwater resources; urban water security
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
British Geological Survey, Nicker Hill, Keyworth, Nottingham NG12 5GG, UK
Interests: active tectonics and tectonic geomorphology; coupling earth surface processes to the human process; environmental response and resilience to future forcings at human and planning time-scales; the Anthropocene, writ large

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Geology is the last bulwark against coastal erosion and flooding. As many coastal cities worldwide transition to a low carbon future, coastal adaptation solutions that work with nature are likely to become more frequent for locations where non-active intervention (NAI) or management realignment (MR) are the preferred coastal management policies. Understanding how the coast might change under NAI and MR over time scales from decades to centuries requires a good representation of the coastal zone structure—defined here as the 3D subsurface structure and the geomorphology of the beach and the enveloping zone (i.e., the nearshore and immediate inland topography). For locations where hold-the-line (HTL) is the preferred adaptation solution against coastal erosion and coastal flooding, a good representation of the coastal zone structure in front of the defences is key to ensure a minimum level of protection under different climate and socioeconomic scenarios. This Special Issue seeks contributions from studies that have: (i) developed better ways of representing (i.e., 3D subsurface models) and monitoring (i.e., satellite derived bathymetries, subsidence, etc.) the coastal zone structure; (ii) translated current geological understanding into more ready to use information for coastal engineering consultants and stakeholders (i.e., sediment yields from an eroding coast, coastal vulnerability assessments); and (iii) 4D modelling of the coastal zone structure.

Dr. Andres Payo Garcia
Dr. Andrew Barkwith
Dr. Michael Ellis
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • coastal erosion and flooding
  • coastal landscape evolution modelling
  • 3D subsurface model
  • non-intrusive survey methods
  • coastal and nearshore processes

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Published Papers (9 papers)

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Editorial

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4 pages, 193 KiB  
Editorial
Innovative Representation of the Coastal Topo-Bathymetry and Subsurface for Flooding and Erosion Risk Reduction
by Andres Payo
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2023, 11(10), 1933; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse11101933 - 7 Oct 2023
Viewed by 1020
Abstract
Geology is the last bulwark against coastal erosion and flooding [...] Full article

Research

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24 pages, 10148 KiB  
Article
Passive Seismic Surveys for Beach Thickness Evaluation at Different England (UK) Sites
by David Morgan, David Gunn, Andres Payo and Michael Raines
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2022, 10(5), 667; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse10050667 - 13 May 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2184
Abstract
In an era of environmental change leading to rising sea levels and increased storminess, there is a need to quantify the volume of beach sediment on the coast of Britain in order to assess the vulnerability to erosion using cheap, easy-to-deploy and non-invasive [...] Read more.
In an era of environmental change leading to rising sea levels and increased storminess, there is a need to quantify the volume of beach sediment on the coast of Britain in order to assess the vulnerability to erosion using cheap, easy-to-deploy and non-invasive methods. Horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio (HVSR) is a technique that uses the natural background seismic ‘noise’ in order to determine the depth of underlying geological interfaces that have contrasting physical properties. In this study, the HVSR technique was deployed at a number of settings on the coast of England that represented a range of different compositions, geomorphology, and underlying bedrock. We verified the results by comparison to other survey techniques, such as ground-penetrating RADAR, multichannel analysis of surface waves (MASW), and cone penetration tests. At locations where there was sufficient contrast in physical properties of the beach material compared to the underlying bedrock, the beach thickness (and therefore the volume of erodible material) was successfully determined, showing that HVSR is a useful tool to use in these settings. Full article
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20 pages, 8596 KiB  
Article
Evidence of Former Sea Levels from a Passive Seismic Survey at a Sandy Beach; Perranporth, SW England, UK
by Andres Payo, Gareth O. Jenkins, Dave Morgan, Nieves G. Valiente and Timothy Scott
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2022, 10(5), 569; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse10050569 - 22 Apr 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2023
Abstract
Since the end of the last glaciation, the United Kingdom’s land surface has been altered by isostatic rebound, rising in the north and sinking in the south. Numerous studies have been published documenting the impact of isostatic rebound on relative sea levels. However, [...] Read more.
Since the end of the last glaciation, the United Kingdom’s land surface has been altered by isostatic rebound, rising in the north and sinking in the south. Numerous studies have been published documenting the impact of isostatic rebound on relative sea levels. However, due to the difficulties in acquiring evidence to prove former sea levels, locally, these data can be sparse or absent. In this work, we explored the suitability of the passive seismic survey (PSS) method to estimate the contemporaneous beach thickness in coastal environments where there is a high impedance contrast between the beach deposits and the underlying wave-cut platform. We conducted a three-day survey at Perran Beach, Cornwall, collected 149 measurements using PSS, and interpreted the observations supported by auxiliary topographical, geological, and independent geophysical observation in the study area. The study site is a contemporaneous beach mostly composed of sand underlain by a wave-cut platform composed of igneous and sedimentary rock, therefore high impedance contrast with the sandy beach is anticipated. The elevation of the bedrock relative to the topographical elevation suggests that the bedrock elevation is −15 m ± 5 m below the present day mean sea level, which is coherent with the observation of relative sea level rise along the region of the south-west. The present study contributes to our current limited understanding of land and sea level movements by providing further subsurface information to the coastal geological archive of south-west England, a region currently in need of more data to reconstruct land- and sea-level movements. Full article
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38 pages, 40854 KiB  
Article
Shoreline Change from Optical and Sar Satellite Imagery at Macro-Tidal Estuarine, Cliffed Open-Coast and Gravel Pocket-Beach Environments
by Maria Victoria Paz-Delgado, Andrés Payo, Alejandro Gómez-Pazo, Anne-Laure Beck and Salvatore Savastano
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2022, 10(5), 561; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse10050561 - 20 Apr 2022
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 4358
Abstract
Coasts are continually changing and remote sensing from satellite has the potential to both map and monitor coastal change at multiple scales. This study aims to assess the application of shorelines extracted from Multi-Spectral Imagery (MSI) and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) from publicly [...] Read more.
Coasts are continually changing and remote sensing from satellite has the potential to both map and monitor coastal change at multiple scales. This study aims to assess the application of shorelines extracted from Multi-Spectral Imagery (MSI) and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) from publicly available satellite imagery to map and capture sub-annual to inter-annual shoreline variability. This is assessed at three macro-tidal study sites along the coastline of England, United Kingdom (UK): estuarine, soft cliff environment, and gravel pocket-beach. We have assessed the accuracy of MSI-derived lines against ground truth datum tideline data and found that the satellite derived lines have the tendency to be lower (seaward) on the Digital Elevation Model than the datum-tideline. We have also compared the metric of change derived from SAR lines differentiating between ascending and descending orbits. The spatial and temporal characteristics extracted from SAR lines via Principal Component Analysis suggested that beach rotation is captured within the SAR dataset for descending orbits but not for the ascending ones in our study area. The present study contributes to our understanding of a poorly known aspect of using coastlines derived from publicly available MSI and SAR satellite missions. It outlines a quantitative approach to assess their mapping accuracy with a new non-foreshore method. This allows the assessment of variability on the metrics of change using the Open Digital Shoreline Analysis System (ODSAS) method and to extract complex spatial and temporal information using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) that is transferable to coastline evolution assessments worldwide. Full article
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18 pages, 6670 KiB  
Article
Open Digital Shoreline Analysis System: ODSAS v1.0
by Alejandro Gómez-Pazo, Andres Payo, María Victoria Paz-Delgado and Miguel A. Delgadillo-Calzadilla
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2022, 10(1), 26; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse10010026 - 27 Dec 2021
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 6841
Abstract
In this study, we propose a new baseline and transect method, the open-source digital shoreline analysis system (ODSAS), which is specifically designed to deal with very irregular coastlines. We have compared the ODSAS results with those obtained using the digital shoreline analysis system [...] Read more.
In this study, we propose a new baseline and transect method, the open-source digital shoreline analysis system (ODSAS), which is specifically designed to deal with very irregular coastlines. We have compared the ODSAS results with those obtained using the digital shoreline analysis system (DSAS). Like DSAS, our proposed method uses a single baseline parallel to the shoreline and offers the user different smoothing and spacing options to generate the transects. Our method differs from DSAS in the way that the transects’ starting points and orientation are delineated by combining raster and vector objects. ODSAS uses SAGA GIS and R, which are both free open-source software programs. In this paper, we delineate the ODSAS workflow, apply it to ten study sites along the very irregular Galician coastline (NW Iberian Peninsula), and compare it with the one obtained using DSAS. We show how ODSAS produces similar values of coastline changes in terms of the most common indicators at the aggregated level (i.e., using all transects), but the values differ when compared at the transect-by-transect level. We argue herein that explicitly requesting the user to define a minimum resolution is important to reduce the subjectivity of the transect and baseline method. Full article
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26 pages, 10360 KiB  
Article
Geometrical Analysis of the Inland Topography to Assess the Likely Response of Wave-Dominated Coastline to Sea Level: Application to Great Britain
by Andres Payo, Chris Williams, Rowan Vernon, Andrew G. Hulbert, Kathryn A. Lee and Jonathan R. Lee
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2020, 8(11), 866; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse8110866 - 31 Oct 2020
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2887 | Correction
Abstract
The need for quantitative assessments at a large spatial scale (103 km) and over time horizons of the order 101 to 102 years have been reinforced by the 2019 Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate, [...] Read more.
The need for quantitative assessments at a large spatial scale (103 km) and over time horizons of the order 101 to 102 years have been reinforced by the 2019 Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate, which concluded that adaptation to a sea-level rise will be needed no matter what emission scenario is followed. Here, we used a simple geometrical analysis of the backshore topography to assess the likely response of any wave-dominated coastline to a sea-level rise, and we applied it along the entire Great Britain (GB) coastline, which is ca. 17,820 km long. We illustrated how the backshore geometry can be linked to the shoreline response (rate of change and net response: erosion or accretion) to a sea-level rise by using a generalized shoreline Exner equation, which includes the effect of the backshore slope and differences in sediment fractions within the nearshore. To apply this to the whole of GB, we developed an automated delineation approach to extract the main geometrical attributes. Our analysis suggests that 71% of the coast of GB is best described as gentle coast, including estuarine coastline or open coasts where back-barrier beaches can form. The remaining 29% is best described as cliff-type coastlines, for which the majority (57%) of the backshore slope values are negative, suggesting that a non-equilibrium trajectory will most likely be followed as a response to a rise in sea level. For the remaining 43% of the cliffed coast, we have provided regional statistics showing where the potential sinks and sources of sediment are likely to be. Full article
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18 pages, 6616 KiB  
Article
Assessing Different Flood Risk and Damage Approaches: A Case of Study in Progreso, Yucatan, Mexico
by Wilmer Rey, Miranda Martínez-Amador, Paulo Salles, E. Tonatiuh Mendoza, Miguel A. Trejo-Rangel, Gemma L. Franklin, Pablo Ruiz-Salcines, Christian M. Appendini and Julián Quintero-Ibáñez
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2020, 8(2), 137; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse8020137 - 20 Feb 2020
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 4723
Abstract
This study applies three different methods to assess the flood risk and damage from the strongest high-pressure cold front (locally known as ‘Norte’) event in terms of the residual tide from 30 years (1979–2008) of data for Progreso, Yucatan. The most [...] Read more.
This study applies three different methods to assess the flood risk and damage from the strongest high-pressure cold front (locally known as ‘Norte’) event in terms of the residual tide from 30 years (1979–2008) of data for Progreso, Yucatan. The most important difference between the three methods is the estimation of flood vulnerability for Progreso. The first method, proposed by Mexico’s National Center for the Prevention of Disasters (CENAPRED) and used by the Mexican government is based mostly on economic asset (household goods) values and flood impacts. The second (CENAPREDv2) and third (FRI) methods are proposals for assessing risk that include 17 socioeconomic indicators. The former includes economic asset values, as is the case for CENAPRED, while the latter does not. The main results of this study show that the modeled ‘Norte’ event flooded 25% of Progreso’s city blocks, with an estimated economic flood risk of $USD 16,266 (CENAPRED) and $USD 223,779 (CENAPREDv2), and flood damage of $USD 48,848 and $USD 671,918, respectively. When calculating flood risk (FRI) and flood damage (FRI_FD) without monetary terms, the risk categories along the back-barrier behind Progreso varied spatially from ‘very low’ to ‘high’, while areas along the coastal side presented a ‘low’ and ‘very low’ risk. These categories increased for the flood damage because the exceedance probability of the flood was not considered as it was for flood risk in the three methodologies. Therefore, flood damage provides the losses caused by a given flood event without considering how probable that loss may be. In conclusion, this study proposes that the selection of the applied method depends on the main objectives and specific interests when assessing flood risk. For instance, if economic damage is the main concern, then the CENAPRED method should be used as it identifies where the larger economic impacts could occur; when a socioeconomic approach is needed then the FRI should be applied, but if both economic damage and socioeconomic aspects are needed, the CENAPREDv2 is recommended. Besides considering economic aspects, the FRI method also includes social variables that can help to map the most vulnerable population in terms of mobility, education, communication access and others. Therefore, the proposed FRI method is very relevant for disaster risk managers and other stakeholders interested in disaster risk reduction. Full article
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22 pages, 11552 KiB  
Article
A Method to Extract Measurable Indicators of Coastal Cliff Erosion from Topographical Cliff and Beach Profiles: Application to North Norfolk and Suffolk, East England, UK
by Pablo Muñoz López, Andrés Payo, Michael A. Ellis, Francisco Criado-Aldeanueva and Gareth Owen Jenkins
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2020, 8(1), 20; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse8010020 - 2 Jan 2020
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 4846
Abstract
Recession of coastal cliffs (bluffs) is a significant problem globally, as around 80% of Earth’s coastlines are classified as sea cliffs. It has long been recognised that beaches control wave energy dissipation on the foreshore and, as a result, can provide protection from [...] Read more.
Recession of coastal cliffs (bluffs) is a significant problem globally, as around 80% of Earth’s coastlines are classified as sea cliffs. It has long been recognised that beaches control wave energy dissipation on the foreshore and, as a result, can provide protection from shoreline and cliff erosion. However, there have been few studies that have quantified the relationship between beach levels and cliff recession rates. One of the few quantitative studies has shown that there is a measurable relationship between the beach thickness (or beach wedge area (BWA) as a proxy for beach thickness) and the annual cliff top recession rate along the undefended coast of North Norfolk and Suffolk in eastern England, United Kingdom (UK). Additionally, previous studies also found that for profiles with low BWA, the annual cliff top recession rate frequency distribution follows a bimodal distribution. This observation suggests that as BWA increases, not only does cliff top recession rate become lower, but also more predictable, which has important implications for coastal stakeholders particularly for planning purposes at decadal and longer time scales. In this study, we have addressed some of the limitations of the previous analysis to make it more transferable to other study sites and applicable to longer time scales. In particular, we have automatised the extraction of cliff tops, toe locations, and BWA from elevation profiles. Most importantly, we have verified the basic assumption of space-for-time substitution in three different ways: (1) Extending the number or years analysed in a previous study from 11 to 24 years, (2) extending the number of locations at which cliff top recession rate and BWA are calculated, and (3) exploring the assumption of surface material remaining unchanged over time by using innovative 3D subsurface modelling. The present study contributes to our understanding of a poorly known aspect of cliff–beach interaction and outlines a quantitative approach that allows for simple analysis of widely available topographical elevation profiles, enabling the extraction of measurable indicators of coastal erosion. Full article
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Other

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1 pages, 165 KiB  
Correction
Correction: Payo et al. Geometrical Analysis of the Inland Topography to Assess the Likely Response of Wave-Dominated Coastline to Sea Level: Application to Great Britain. J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2020, 8, 866
by Andres Payo, Chris Williams, Rowan Vernon, Andrew G. Hulbert, Kathryn A. Lee and Jonathan R. Lee
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2022, 10(7), 913; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse10070913 - 1 Jul 2022
Viewed by 988
Abstract
There was an error in the original publication [...] Full article
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