Images in the wake of violent coastal storms usually focus purely on the extensive damage caused to beaches, dunes, property, and surrounding infrastructure.
However, a new international study has shown that extreme weather events could help protect beaches from the impact of sea-level rise - by bringing in new sand from deeper waters or from nearby beaches.
Published in Nature Communications Earth & Environment, the research was led by the University of New South Wales in collaboration with researchers from the University of Plymouth and Autonomous University of Baja California.
It examined three coastlines across Australia, the United Kingdom and Mexico, each of which had been subjected to a sequence of extreme storms or extended storm clusters, followed by a milder period of beach recovery.
The damage caused at Narrabeen beach in Sydney in the wake of a 2016 storm (Credit: UNSW Sydney)
Coastal Processes Research Group
The Coastal Processes Research Group is an internationally recognised group of researchers, specialising in field studies of coastal processes and seeking to understand and predict the behaviour of coastal and estuarine systems. Research topics include:
- beach morphodynamics and nearshore sediment transport
- coastal erosion and storm impacts
- video monitoring of coastal systems
- coastal process modelling
- estuarine processes and evolution.
The group operates a research-informed consultancy Coastal Marine Applied Research.
