Knowra Coastal engineering Coastal engineering Coastal engineering designs and maintains structures and interventions in coastal environments. It manages interactions among waves, currents, sediment, shorelines, and built infrastructure.
Wave mechanics : The study of how waves form, travel, transform, and exert forces. Wave height, period, and breaking determine forces on coastal structures.
Seawall : A shore-parallel structure that separates land from the sea and resists wave action. Seawalls defend fixed assets but can intensify erosion in front of or beside them.
Managed retreat : The planned movement of people or assets away from areas exposed to coastal hazards. It reduces exposure by relocating assets rather than holding the shoreline in place.
Thames Barrier : A movable flood barrier across the River Thames in London, operational since 1982. It demonstrates large-scale, movable protection against storm surges and high tides.
Sea-level rise : The long-term increase in the average level of the global ocean. Rising water levels change flood elevations, erosion rates, and the useful life of defenses.
Longshore drift : The transport of sediment along a coast by waves approaching at an angle. It explains why a structure can trap sand on one side and starve another.
Breakwater : A structure that reduces wave energy by obstructing waves before they reach a shore or harbor. Breakwaters create calmer water, while also changing sediment deposition patterns.
Coastal squeeze : The loss of coastal habitats when rising seas push shorelines landward against fixed development or defenses. Hard defenses can prevent habitats from migrating as sea level rises.
Delta Works : A Dutch system of dams, sluices, locks, dikes, and storm-surge barriers built after the 1953 North Sea flood. Its mix of closures and controlled openings shows how engineering can reshape estuarine systems.
Coastal flooding : The inundation of coastal land by seawater from tides, waves, storm surge, or rising sea level. Design must account for multiple sources of flooding that can combine during extreme events.
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