DuneVaSH

Dunes are a nature-based coastal protection measure and constitute a central component of coastal defense along the German North Sea and Baltic Sea coasts. Ongoing climate change is leading to a significant increase in hazard potential in coastal regions. Global sea-level rise, combined with the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme storm events, substantially elevates the risk for populations living in these areas. A deeper understanding of the stability and resilience of dunes under storm surge conditions is therefore becoming increasingly important.

The persistence of dunes under storm surge loading depends on various influencing factors. These include, in particular, dune morphology, vegetation cover, hydrodynamic forcing, as well as the sedimentological and geotechnical properties of the dune material. The DuneVaSH project therefore aims to improve the process-based understanding of storm surge-induced dune erosion and to quantify the influence of sedimentological and geotechnical parameters on dune stability and resilience. To address this objective, geotechnical and sedimentological parameters are systematically collected and their effects on dune erosion are analyzed under different climate change scenarios.

The Institute of Geosciences at Kiel University conducts systematic field-based surveys of morphological, sedimentological, and geotechnical parameters that significantly influence storm surge-induced dune erosion. In addition, the field data are integrated into numerical simulations to model storm surge-induced beach and dune erosion processes under varying boundary conditions and to enable the simulation of future storm surge scenarios.

The Leichtweiß Institute for Hydraulic Engineering at TU Braunschweig surveys nearshore bathymetry before and after storm surge events in order to document morphological changes in the foreshore and coastal zone. Based on the parameters obtained in the field, experimental investigations of storm surge-induced dune erosion are conducted. These experiments are carried out both in two-dimensional wave flumes and in three-dimensional wave basins, with key sedimentological and geotechnical parameters systematically varied to analyze their influence on dune erosion processes.

The findings of the project are intended to serve as a foundation for process-based dune design and thus contribute to the sustainable and climate-resilient advancement of coastal protection strategies.