VeMoLahn

The research project is funded within the framework of the BMBF funding announcement of 7th June 2021: "Entwicklung von nachhaltigen Lösungen im Küsten- und Hochwasserschutz sowie der Unterhaltung von Wasserstraßen und Häfen". The salt marshes fronting dykes that are regularly flooded and affected by storm surges, play a central role in the preventive coastal protection along the North Sea coast. A key function of salt marshes is their ability to adapt to a certain extent to changing sea levels through lateral and vertical growth dynamics. Whether foreshores growth can keep pace with accelerated sea level rise in the future, however, depends strongly on local currents and the sediment budget regularly introduced by the tides and storm surges. Brushwood groynes can support critical accretion processes as they offer a hydrodynamically calmed settlement space and at the same time support the colonisation and thus consolidation of the tidal flats by salt-tolerant pioneer plants. The overarching goal of the research project is to provide coastal protection authorities and municipal planning authorities with tools in the form of numerical models. Such models will enable a well-founded projection of the effects of structural changes, maintenance measures and climate-related changes in sea level on sedimentation and vertical growth processes in brushwood groyne fields. For this purpose, the knowledge gaps on sedimentation and erosion processes in brushwood groyne fields, which depend on wave energy, sea state, vegetation cover and structure as well as the design and the structural composition of the brushwood groyne fields are to be analysed. Based on these findings, the hydro-morphological and biological parameters will be quantified and integrated into the model systems.