To apply for this project please click here. Tick programme type - Research, tick Full-time or Part-time, select Academic year – ‘2024/25, Faculty Environmental and Life Sciences’, search text – ‘PhD Ocean & Earth Science (FLOOD CDT)’. In Section 2 of the application form you should insert the name of the project and supervisor(s) you are interested in applying for. if you have any problems please contact I.D.Haigh@soton.ac.uk.
To apply for this project please click here. Tick programme type - Research, tick Full-time or Part-time, select Academic year – ‘2024/25, Faculty Environmental and Life Sciences’, search text – ‘PhD Ocean & Earth Science (FLOOD CDT)’. In Section 2 of the application form you should insert the name of the project and supervisor(s) you are interested in applying for. if you have any problems please contact I.D.Haigh@soton.ac.uk.
With a changing climate and rising sea levels, the need to examine the future of sea defences is widely recognized but rarely considered in the broader context of marine transgression of our coasts and estuaries, that is, the landward migration/retreat of a shoreline relative to rising sea level over longer timescales (decades and centuries). At the same time, there is a growing focus on nature-based solutions (NbS), which seek to protect, sustainably manage or restore natural or modified ecosystems, to leverage the flood management potential as an alternative to hard defences. Coastal NbS also have the potential to provide a range of services beyond flood alleviation, mitigation and protection, and as such, feature increasingly in adaptation policies. However, where coastlines are subjected to marine transgression, the sustainability of NbS schemes may be limited. This research will seek to identify solutions best suited to conditions of marine transgression and what alternatives might need to be considered over a range of planning horizons. This will entail identifying what success looks like under conditions of marine transgressions, and which solutions might maximise the likelihood of that success?
Building on a review of current hard defences, nature-based solutions and hybrid options and an assessment of what works under given conditions, the design options and constraints will be identified. These will then be tested for a range of coastal types, subjected to marine transgression, using a combination of observational data and models. This broader modelling assessment will be used to analyse whole life benefits (flood protection, carbon storage, biodiversity, community amenity, etc.) for the various options and provide a framework for defining adaptation pathways capable of delivering change that is consistent with the timescales of marine transgression.
- Brown, I. (2022). Do habitat compensation schemes to offset losses from sea level rise and coastal squeeze represent a robust climate change adaptation response? Ocean & Coastal Management 219. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2022.106072.
- Valiela, I., Lloret, J., Bowyer, T., Miner, S., Remsen, D., Elmstrom, E., Cogswell, C., and Robert Thieler, E. (2018). Transient coastal landscapes: Rising sea level threatens salt marshes. Sci Total Environ 640-641, https://doi.org/101148-1156. 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.05.235.
- Townend, I.H., Zhou, Z., Guo, L., and Coco, G. (2020). A morphological investigation of marine transgression in estuaries. Earth Surf. Process. Landf. 46, 626–641. https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.5050.
