TY - JOUR

T1 - Foredune growth and storm surge protection potential at the Eiderstedt Peninsula, Germany

AU - Mehrtens, Björn

AU - Lojek, Oliver

AU - Kosmalla, Viktoria

AU - Bölker, Thea

AU - Goseberg, Nils

N1 - Funding Information: This research was funded by the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN), the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV) and the Ministry for Energy Transition, Climate Protection, Environment and Nature (MELUR) in the framework of the joint-research project “Sandküste St. Peter-Ording” (FKZ 3520685C16). We acknowledge support by the Open Access Publication Funds of Technische Universität Braunschweig. Acknowledgments

PY - 2023/1/9

Y1 - 2023/1/9

N2 - In the context of climate change and associated sea level rise, coastal dunes can provide an essential contribution to coastal protection against wave attack and flooding. Since dunes are highly dynamic systems, their potential safety levels are related to their long-term development, varying in time and space, however pertinent research that ties those aspects together are generally scarce. The objective of this study is to analyze the long-term development of a young coastal foredune at the Eiderstedt peninsula, Germany and assess its coastal protection potential. This research presents (i) a novel semi-automated Dune Toe Tracking (DTT) method to systematically extract dune toes from cross-shore elevation profiles; (ii) established tools to derive the extraction of characteristic dune parameters and (iii) a newly defined Critical Storm Surge Level (CSSL) to relate spatio-temporal dune growth with coastal storm surge protection. Based on geospatial survey data, initial dune formation was identified in the 1980s. By 2015, the foredune had developed over a 6.5 km coastal stretch with a mean annual growth of 7.4m³/m. During the course of dune evolution, the seaward dune toe shifted seaward by an average of 2.3m/yr, while simultaneously increasing in height by an average of 1.1 cm/yr. Overall, the foredune formation established a new line of defense in front of an existing dike/dune line that provides spatially varying protection against a mean CSSL of 3.4m + NHN and can serve as an additional buffer against wave attack during severe storm events.

AB - In the context of climate change and associated sea level rise, coastal dunes can provide an essential contribution to coastal protection against wave attack and flooding. Since dunes are highly dynamic systems, their potential safety levels are related to their long-term development, varying in time and space, however pertinent research that ties those aspects together are generally scarce. The objective of this study is to analyze the long-term development of a young coastal foredune at the Eiderstedt peninsula, Germany and assess its coastal protection potential. This research presents (i) a novel semi-automated Dune Toe Tracking (DTT) method to systematically extract dune toes from cross-shore elevation profiles; (ii) established tools to derive the extraction of characteristic dune parameters and (iii) a newly defined Critical Storm Surge Level (CSSL) to relate spatio-temporal dune growth with coastal storm surge protection. Based on geospatial survey data, initial dune formation was identified in the 1980s. By 2015, the foredune had developed over a 6.5 km coastal stretch with a mean annual growth of 7.4m³/m. During the course of dune evolution, the seaward dune toe shifted seaward by an average of 2.3m/yr, while simultaneously increasing in height by an average of 1.1 cm/yr. Overall, the foredune formation established a new line of defense in front of an existing dike/dune line that provides spatially varying protection against a mean CSSL of 3.4m + NHN and can serve as an additional buffer against wave attack during severe storm events.

KW - coastal dunes

KW - coastal protection

KW - dune toe tracking

KW - fema-rule

KW - foredune growth

KW - sea level rise

KW - storm surges

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85146899339&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3389/fmars.2022.1020351

DO - 10.3389/fmars.2022.1020351

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85146899339

VL - 9

JO - Frontiers in Marine Science

JF - Frontiers in Marine Science

SN - 2296-7745

M1 - 1020351

ER -