Project Description: The overall goal is to develop a methodology to evaluate the benefit of vegetated shorelines using numerical modeling in conjunction with available laboratory and field studies. To date, CSHORE has been validated for wave attenuation and setup on vegetated shorelines. The specific objectives of this project are: (1) to improve and validate CSHORE for modeling wave runup and storm surge on vegetated shoreline based on existing observational data; (2) to incorporate flexible vegetation into CSHORE for representative vegetated shorelines; (3) to determine the capacity of vegetated shorelines to reduce low-intensity coastal storm damages; 4) to determine the threshold coastal storm parameters for which vegetated shorelines are ineffective; 5) to determine the conditions under which vegetated shores are damaged and will not naturally recover; 6) to determine the capacity of vegetated shorelines to keep pace with rising sea level, and the rate of relative sea level change at which they are not able to cope; 7) to compare the differences in risk reduction between vegetated shoreline and traditional armoring, such as revetments; and 8) to apply this knowledge to develop fragility, damage, and recovery profiles for vegetated shorelines.
Lead Principal Investigator: Dr. Jim Chen, Northeastern University
Partner Institution: Northeastern University
Federal Agency: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Federal Agency Technical Contact: Jeri McGuffie
Project Type: Research
Project Discipline: Natural Resources
Project Sub-Discipline(s): Biological (Ecology, Fish, Wildlife, Vegetation, T&E), Engineering, Design, & Sustainability, Water (FW & Marine)
Start Year: 2018
End Year: 2021
Initial Funding Amount: $80,000.00
Federal Grant Number: W912HZ-18-2-0007
Products Associated with this Project:
- Zhu, L. Chen, Q., Ding, Y., Jafari, N., and Rosati, J. D., 2019. A semi-analytical model of depth-integrated vegetal drag force based on Stokes second-order wave theory. Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal and Ocean Engineering, 145 (2): 04018041. (Technical Report (Published))
- Zhu, L., Chen, Q., Ding, Y., Jafari, N.H., Wang, H., Johnson B.D., 2023. Towards a unified relation of drag coefficient for quantifying wave energy reduction by salt marshes, Coastal Engineering, 180: 104256. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coastaleng.2022.104256 (Journal Article)
- Cadigan, J.A., Jafari, N.H., Wang, N., Chen, Q., Zhu, L., Harris, B.D., and Ding, Y., 2023. Near-continuous monitoring of a coastal salt marsh margin: Implications to predicting marsh edge erosion, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 48(7): 1362-1373. doi: 10.1002/esp.5554. (Journal Article)
- Chen, Q., L. Zhu, Y. Ding, N.H. Jafari, J.D. Rosati, and B.D. Johnson. 2021. Evaluation of Vegetated Shoreline Capacity Using CSHORE-VEG. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Vicksburg, Minnesota. (Technical Report (Published))