It's time to jump in the flume!

It was a scorching 35 degrees in the flume today, and so I couldn't resist but to go for a swim... It was quite refreshing despite the look on my face, although I did have to do some maintenance on rig 1. We raised the rig up 8 cm on the leg as the vectrino and EMCM was buried in the sediment. This is due to the foot of the leg creating a huge scour hole, resulting in the whole rig to drop. We are trying to think of a more effective solution, however until then we will just have to go swimming and adjust the height. 

Today's activities included raising the sea level once more another 10 cm, making the sea level 4.9 m. The profiles have shown a significant difference between the first run (SB4_1) and the last run (SB4_4), with the bar edging landwards by ~90 cm. As well as this figure 1 appears to be indicating that the mega ripples are migrating back, seawards.

Again the beach face continues to erode (fig.2), more so after SB4_2 (40 mins), and the berm is gradually being built up. 

Sea level = 4.9 m

Wave height = 0.8 m

Wave period = 6.0 s

Figure 1 - Cross-shore profile of test SB4_1 to 4 (4 hours), showing the elevation of the outer sand bar and mega ripples.

Figure 2 - Cross-shore profile of test SB4_1 to 4, showing the elevation of the beach face and berm.

Figure 3 - Cross-shore profile of test SB4_1 to 4 of the elevation of sediment across the whole beach.

Sea level is rising

Flume re-filled, this time with an increase of 0.1 m, making the sea level now 4.8 m. The sand bar carries on migrating seawards, until the last run (SB3_6, in green), the bar starts to migrate landwards. Erosion occurring on the beach face is larger between the first 3 runs, but this decreases once the 60 minute wave sets run and the beach becomes stable.

Sea level = 4.8 m
Wave height = 0.8 m
Wave period = 6.0 s

Beach profile showing the elevation of sediment of test SB3 (sandy beach 3).

A zoomed in version of the sand bar and mega ripples (SB3).

A zoomed in version of the beachface and berm (SB3).

Megaripples revealed

And we're back in the flume again! We had a day off on Monday as it was maintenance day for the wave paddle, but we still came in to adjust the rigs. However this meant the flume was drained and we could see the beach profile, with some interesting finds...!

Birds eye shot of rig 1 and 2, looking at the megaripples and sand bar.

Emily holding a 1 m long tape measure, to get an idea of the scale of the megaripples, pretty big!  

Rig 2 (shorewards), stuck among the megaripples. 

Rig 1 (seawards), located on the beginning of the sand bar.

Facing seawards with a view of the sand bar.

The back of the sand bar looking out seawards, showing some erosion as the water was drained.

Both rigs were raised, and the legs were moved backwards so they were in-line with the instruments. Hopefully this will help prevent the sensors from getting buried. Job done, nice short day! 

The A team

Day 10 in the flume and another week down! The sea level has now risen an extra 0.2 m in total (SB2), meaning we had to make a shelter for us and our laptops! We're really starting to make ourselves as home here, thank you hydralab!

Sea level = 4.6 m
Wave height = 0.8 m
Wave period = 6.0 s

Our new office with protection! 

It's also getting extremely hot in here, the mucky flume is looking more and more inviting to jump in... Anyway, the profile is becoming more stable, the sand bar has stopped moving seaward and hopefully on Tuesday with another sea level rise we will see the bar migrate landwards. We are also still seeing beach face erosion and berm growth, as well as lots of mega ripples in the surf-zone, which can also be seen on the ripple profiler.

Finally, it's that dreaded time of the week where we had to say goodbye to two more of our team members, Daniel and Ozzy. We started this experiment with 11 people and we've now dwindled down to just 3, it's okay though we're an efficient team #ateam. So efficient we managed to finish a day ahead of schedule, meaning we can raise the sea level up another 10 cm on Tuesday. But until then we're going to take a little trip to Berlin and relax!

Climate change is upon us

Guten morgen! It's day 8 in the flume, and we're running 3 hour wave runs (SB0). That's quite a long time in between runs but we're finding ways of occupying ourselves, like reading papers, processing data on matlab, or making yourself look like a pig with a coffee mug... times are hard!

The beach appears to be stabilizing, so today's the day! The sun is shining, the tank is clean (well maybe not clean, but it's definitely hot here) and climate change is upon us... yes that's right the sea level has risen by 10 cm and we are now on SB1! Look at them waves crash. The 'sea spray' is splashing onto our laptops now, so we need to take cover! Hopefully tomorrow we'll see a change in the sand bar migration, or maybe we won't and it'll just flatten out and re-form further up the beach? You'll find out tomorrow!
Once again we say goodbye to two of our team, Chris and Tom. Thank you so much for you help and fingers crossed everything will go to schedule... Otherwise you maybe hearing from us Chris!
Final update - the vectrinos still don't work (just incase any of you were concerned). Thank you Peter for trying to sort it from all the way back in England, much appreciated!

Sea level = 4.6 m
Wave height = 0.8 m
Wave period = 6.0 s

Let the flume see the waves!

Day 7 in the Large Water Flume...
Beach drained, profile revealed, wonky rig! Not ideal... Everyone in the flume!
Unsurprisingly the rig was quite heavy, but rig 1 is now level with the horizontal bar and we're ready for waves.

Again, another successful day, apart from the vectrinos of course... same story different day, maybe they won't timeout tomorrow! The 3D scanner is showing the sand bar migrating seawards with the inner bar following behind. Completed 1x2 hour and 1x3 hour run of SB0. The instruments don't seem to be submerged in the seabed so no need to drain the flume again tonight. Everyone's happy, so all is good in the Large Water Flume!

Sea level = 4.5 m
Wave height = 0.8 m
Wave period = 6.0 s

Emily working hard in the office! Anyone need a laptop?

Ozzy, Paul and Chris making themselves look busy on the trolley!

3D Sonar Scan screenshot of the profile at 228.79 m with a 4.5 m radius. Top right image is a birds eye view of the seabed (the top being landwards, bottom being seawards). Red represents an elevation in sediment and green a decrease. Bottom left is a side on view of the cross-shore profile, you can see the crest of the bar on the left, before the shadowing of data appears and on the right the inner bar is starting to emerge. Bottom right image is the final 3D image - it has been rotated so that it is looking at the beach profile side on, with the right side being landwards and left being seawards. This angle shows a clearer view of the inner sand bar (on the right) the trough (in the middle, green) and the outer sandbar (on the left). 

The rise of the plastic tide

Day 6 in the flume and these early morning starts are starting to take its toll on us...coffee time! (However it is instant coffee, sorry Daniel don't be too disappointed in us!)

Daniel and Chris got a head start on the day and raised the rig up on the foot by 157 mm, causing the vectrino to be raised by 45 mm on rig 1. Hopefully this'll prevent them from being submerged by sand!

Daniel doing some DIY on rig 1.

The flume was drained over the weekend and it as possible to observe the features on the beach. Two bars were clearly distinguishable, however the rigs themselves appear to be preventing sand bar formation on the cross section of the flume.

Sadly the draining of the flume left behind a load of plastic. Even on a man made beach you cannot escape the occurrence of plastic...

Other than that it was a successful day, completing 5 hours of waves and we were able to detect the sand bar migrating seawards. The vectrino was once again buried and rig 1 ended up being right on top of the sand bar causing it to rest on an angle. We're draining the flume overnight so we have the thrilling job of moving the whole rig up in the morning. Hopefully we won't get too wet! 

First waves

Day 5 in the flume and all instruments are working (at the moment) and so it is time for some waves! 

All in all it was a successful day, apart from the vectrinos keep cutting out. Peter hadn't even left the country yet and we were bugging him already...sorry Peter! 
Nevertheless we carried on completing 4 hours of test Sandy Beach 0 (SB0), and the trolley profiler clearly showed the sand bar forming and migrating offshore, hooray! The weekend is here, time for a beer...

Sea level = 4.5 m
Wave height = 0.8 m
Wave period = 6.0 s

Lidar profiles from day 1 (4 hours) showing two bars forming, gradually migrating seawards. 

The tide has arrived!

And as if by magic water has appeared in the flume! We also have a new team member joining us, Ozzy from Bath university, who will be the multi-beam man! 

Today and yesterday we had instrument testing and software checks. The EMCM's decided to play up and so annoyingly we had to drain the flume again. This time the EMCM was replaced, instruments were again, re-measured in respect to the seabed and the tide was scheduled to arrive.

Rig 1 had re-emerged after the flume was drained in order to fix the EMCM on rig 2.

It was high tide in the flume and the 3D scanning sonar had to be rotated, meaning one brave soul had to go for a swim, and Gerd willingly sacrificed himself! Other than that the rigs, Lidar and the multi-beam are now set and ready for waves in the morning. 

Sadly we said goodbye to Ian, Gerd, Peter and Rafael but we managed to get a team picture before we parted. Hopefully everything will run smoothly tomorrow, fingers crossed!

Day 2 at the flume

Time is now ticking as the tide should arrive tonight at approximately 1am. So today we set up the computers and software, making sure everything was responding and time synced.
However, obviously something had to go wrong... the OBS (optical back scatter) decided to not respond and so Peter performed open cable surgery, rewired the cables and replaced the cylinder. After this mayhem the instruments were once AGAIN, measured from the seabed and everything is now ready for water.

Hello from down below! Me, Ian and Paul checking out the wave paddle before the water arrives. 

How deep is your flume? Part 2.

With dimensions of 5 m wide, 7 m deep and 300 m long, the GWK is now not quite as big as the Delta flume (Netherlands). No tension there...
Anyway, a very tiring and long but successful day at the flume. Both rigs are up, most of the instruments are mounted and cabling is in place. I also learnt that electrical tape is the single most useful tool to have. #WhoNeedsPlasters

Me and Peter installing the EMCM (Electromagnetic Current Meter).  Good thing there is no tidal time limit!

Rig 1 and 2 up and running, all instruments mounted and A LOT of cabling strapped down, they wont be moving anytime soon!

We've arrived!

After 7 hours of driving, an 8 hour boat journey and then another 5 hours of driving (with a quick 2 hour spa bath detour) we finally made it to Hannover in the CPRG van. Hello Germany...excited to start working in the flume tomorrow morning! 

What are we actually studying??

Hi guys, Emily here! This is just a brief overview of what we're actually studying in the flume. 

As much as some people deny the science (*cough, cough*) of Climate Change, it's a real thing. And, it's happening fast. We've heard it all a thousand times- the ice caps are melting and poor polar bears are suffering. The temperature of the Earth is rising. Sea levels are rising faster than we can build defences. Blah blah blah... the world is doomed. But, what does this actually mean for us? 

Well my friends, this is where it gets interesting. The rising tide of sea level rise might seem like a far away problem for developing countries like Myanmar (Burma) and in Southeast Asia. But, the threat is very real much closer to home too, in places like The Netherlands and even for the UK too. But what can we do about it? With politicians debating whether there's actually a problem with Climate Change (rather than listening to the experts and scientists who dedicate their whole research careers into this topic...) instead of debating solutions to problems, the emphasis has shifted into protecting ourselves than stopping it in the first place. 

Anyone who did Geography at GCSE or A-Level, or regular visitors to the beach, knows that current sea defences fall under two categories: soft or hard engineering. 
'Soft' engineering refers to options that have minimal construction or visual impact on the coastal environment. This is usually either beach nourishment (the replacement of material onto a beach which had been lost via erosion or longshore transport) or managed retreat (particular areas of coastline are allowed to flood or erode as a sacrifice for other areas). 
'Hard' engineering on the other hand tends to have a large construction aspect e.g. sea walls., groynes and rip rap (large boulders placed at the foot of a cliff or beach to absorb wave energy). 
(Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/geography/coasts/coastal_management_rev2.shtml )

What we're trying to do is create a middle ground, some sort of  'medium' engineering that combines the best of both worlds. A rock revetment that's like a cross between a traditional groyne and rip rap that runs parallel to the shoreline, called a Dynamic Revetment. Okay... so what's this got to do with Climate Change? Well, these new types of coastal management techniques are what will protect us from the inevitable sea level rise in the near future. By developing these new methods, we can buy ourselves a little more time for people to stop burying their heads in the sand (quite literally!) and start to make real headway in slowing down the onset of Climate Change. 

So how do we get from a pile of sand in an empty flume, to creating the coastal defences of the future? 

We've spent the last week and a bit preparing the flume. The artificial slope was created and the rigs have been setup (with lots and lots of adjustments required!), and a cumulative 23 hours of waves have been simulated to transform the slope into a more natural profile with a migrating sandbar. The next stage is to raise the sea level in 0.1m increments under the same wave conditions, tracking the migratory path of the sandbar and the behaviour of the sediment transport and water velocities. After this, the beach will be reshaped and reset to a natural profile, and the dynamic revetment (hence the project name DynaRev!) installed with a continuing sea level rise to monitor and track the changes. The big reveal will come when the comparisons can be drawn between the normal beach and the revetment under the same conditions... and hopefully you'll all be as excited as we are to find out the result! 


So, that's the boring explanation of what we're actually doing out the way. Keep checking back for (shorter!) updates on our progress!