The Equipment Helping to Protect Coastal Communities
The impact of rising sea level on the flood hazard from sea defence overtopping means new coastal schemes need to remain resistant to changing wave and water levels over the next 100 years.
The design of new coastal flood defences and the setting of tolerable hazard thresholds requires site-specific information of wave overtopping during storms of varying severity, which are combined with future sea level projections.
WireWall System
Wave overtopping of sea defences poses a hazard to people and infrastructure, but detailed data on the speed of the water is difficult to access. The WireWall system was built to provide this data: it is an array of capacitance-based sensors which measure the speed and volume of overtopping water (both spray and green water) on a wave-by-wave basis.
The system has been validated in a flume, as well as deployed at several UK coastal sites including Crosby and Dawlish. The long-term data series has been used to better understand and be able to predict the tide, wave and wind conditions that cause overtopping.
Specifications
Actual size and design tailored to installation which varies precision and accuracy, but device is always battery powered (several months operation on D cells) and normally fitted with data telemetry for near real time data to a data centre. 400 Hz sampling for speed of water calculations, giving +/-0.3 m s-1 error on 3.5 m s-1 water velocity.
In Action: WireWall the Movie
The video below shows how WireWall was developed, how it is deployed and the difference it makes to the coastal area it's placed on.
More Information
Yelland, Margaret J. 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0936-4957; Brown, Jennifer M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3894-4651; Cardwell, Christopher L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1305-4174; Jones, David S.; Pascal, Robin W.; Pinnell, Richard ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2102-2028; Pullen, Tim; Silva, Eunice.
2023
A system for in-situ, wave-by-wave measurements of the speed and volume of coastal overtopping.
Communications Engineering, 2 (1).
10.1038/s44172-023-00058-3
2023
Article
Lashley, Christopher H.; Brown, Jennifer M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3894-4651; Yelland, Margaret J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0936-4957; van der Meer, Jentsje W.; Pullen, Tim.
2022
Comparison of deep-water-parameter-based wave overtopping with wirewall field measurements and social media reports at Crosby (UK).
Coastal Engineering, 179, 104241.
10.1016/j.coastaleng.2022.104241
2022
Article
Brown, Jennifer ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3894-4651; Masselink, Gerd ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6079-7611; Yelland, Margaret ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0936-4957; Stokes, Christopher ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0684-7790; Poate, Timothy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4285-3066; Pascal, Robin; Jones, David; Walk, John ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-6760-4929; Cardwell, Christopher ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1305-4174; Martin, Barry; Ganderton, Peter ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4550-319X; Gregory, Julie; Adams, Ruth ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-2088-5989; Saunders, Joseff.
2025
Spatial and temporal variation in wave overtopping across a coastal structure based on one year of field observations.
Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, 13 (11).
2194.
10.3390/jmse13112194
2025
Article