Nature-based climate resilience through shoreline transformation: Whittaker Creek, VA, USA (2023-2024)

Global climate change has led to many adverse impacts including changing weather patterns and an increase in the severity and frequency of extreme weather events. Traditional hard engineering solutions for coastal protection, such as seawalls and bulkheads, are becoming inadequate as they do not have the capacity to keep pace with the accelerating impacts of climate change. In response, there is growing interest in Natural and Nature-Based Features (NNBF), which offer innovative and adaptive approaches to coastal protection. NNBFs, such as salt marshes or living shorelines, have demonstrated potential for mitigating wave energy, reducing flood risks, and enhancing coastal resilience. However, the effectiveness of these features can vary based on their physical attributes and the specific environmental conditions in which they are implemented. The inconsistent performance of NNBFs has posed challenges for their widespread adoption, partly due to uncertainties in their efficacy and barriers in public policy.

This research focuses on evaluating the performance of NNBFs in attenuating waves through innovative field-scale prototypes. At the Whittaker Creek Canal project site, we conducted two field experiments to evaluate the effectiveness of NNBFs at attenuating boat wakes, which are practical emulators of wind waves and storm surge events. One field experiment was conducted before the construction of the NNBFs at the canal, while the other was done after. During the field experiments, we conducted trials by operating the same boat along the canal at different speeds and with varying weights to generate a diverse range of wakes. The varying set of wakes allowed us to simulate different controlled coastal hazard conditions, and observe the response of the NNBFs. Overall, this study found that these innovative NNBFs significantly reduced wave heights in the Whittaker Creek Canal. Boat speed had a greater impact on wave height than vessel weight, but both factors are important. Most notably, combining different NNBFs, like oyster reefs and Geotubes™, improved wave reduction effectiveness, especially at low boat speeds, making them highly effective under low intensity or daily conditions.

Here, a Jupyter Notebook is provided to a) Access the data; b) Generate plots; and c) Perform data analysis.

全球气候变化已引发诸多不利影响，包括天气模式改变，以及极端天气事件的强度与发生频率显著提升。传统海岸防护硬工程方案，如海堤（seawall）、驳岸（bulkhead），正逐渐难以适配当前需求，因其无法跟上气候变化加剧的影响节奏。为此，人们对自然及基于自然的措施（Natural and Nature-Based Features，简称NNBF）的兴趣与日俱增，这类方案为海岸防护提供了创新性且自适应的解决路径。盐沼、生态岸线等NNBF已展现出削弱波浪能、降低洪涝风险、提升海岸韧性的应用潜力。然而，此类措施的效能会因其物理属性及实施所在的具体环境条件而产生差异。NNBF表现的不一致性为其大规模推广应用带来了挑战，这在一定程度上源于其效能的不确定性，以及公共政策层面存在的实施障碍。

本研究聚焦于通过创新的现场尺度原型，评估NNBF的消浪性能。在惠特克溪运河（Whittaker Creek Canal）项目场地，我们开展了两场现场试验，以评估NNBF衰减船行波的效能——船行波可作为风浪与风暴潮事件的实用模拟载体。第一场试验在运河的NNBF设施建成前开展，第二场则在设施建成后进行。现场试验期间，我们通过操控同一艘船舶以不同航速、搭载不同配重沿运河航行，生成了多样化的船行波。这套可变的船行波设置，使我们得以模拟不同受控的海岸灾害工况，并观测NNBF的响应特征。总体而言，本研究发现这些创新性NNBF可显著降低惠特克溪运河内的波高。船舶航速对波高的影响大于船舶配重，但二者均为重要影响因素。尤为关键的是，将牡蛎礁与土工管袋（Geotubes™）这类不同的NNBF相结合，可显著提升消浪效能，尤其在低航速工况下表现突出，使其在低强度日常工况下具备极高的应用价值。

本项目附带提供一份Jupyter Notebook，可用于：a）获取原始数据集；b）生成可视化图表；c）开展数据分析工作。