Coastal Protection and Flood Defence Design - Isis Project No 1415

A team of Oxford inventors has invented a new methodology for the design and reassessment of wave run-up and overtopping of sea defences that leads to flooding.

The Technology

In recent years, oceanographers have begun to support the idea that mean sea levels are rising and that evidence suggests that there is a marked increase in the frequency and intensity of storms. The present sea defences, revetments and breakwaters commonly used will therefore become inadequate so there is a clear need to improve them in line with changing climatic events.

The present practice is to predict overtopping volumes per unit time using purely empirical formulae derived from wave flume tests. This is a flawed technique because of the contamination from random waves.

The Oxford inventors have developed a robust numerical solver for coastal hydrodynamics that models wave transformation over variable sea-bed topography through the swash zone, and the run up and overtopping. The model has been extensively validated at the UK Coastal Research Facility.

The Oxford Invention

The new approach is to use tailored deterministic wave groups, based on recent advances in the statistical theory of random wave fields. This overcomes most, if not virtually all, the problems associated with random wave tests.

Commercial Opportunity

The aim of this technology is to give coastal engineering consultants robust tools to allow structural design to a client-specified tolerable level of risk and reducing overall cost of construction whilst increasing reliability of the finished defences.

Keywords

Sea Defences, Costal protection, Flood defence, Flood defences, Oceanography, Rising sea level, Storms, Breakwaters, Seawalls, Coastal engineering, Wave flume tests, Water overtopping, Coastal hydrodynamics, Hydrodynamics, Seabed topography, Tsunami

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Request Further Information: Project Number 1415 - Coastal Protection and Flood Defence Design