Document of bibliographic reference 405013

BibliographicReference record

Type

Bibliographic resource

Type of document

Journal article

BibLvlCode

AS

Title

Three years of morphological dune development after planting marram grass on a beach

Abstract

Coastal regions globally face escalating challenges from climate change, including rising sea levels and intensified storm events. To address these threats, coastal resilience emerges as a critical paradigm advocating the integration of nature-based solutions with traditional engineering approaches. Coastal dunes, acting as protective barriers, offer a promising avenue. This three-year study assesses the efficacy of an artificial dune system to address local sand-related nuisances on the adjacent seawall featuring planted marram grass in Oosteroever, Belgium. The focus is on understanding sediment accumulation, dune morphology and vegetation development. The results demonstrate a significant increase in dune height, reaching up to 2 m in the zones planted with marram grass, surpassing the height of the adjacent seawall. Comprehensive profiles and drone surveys revealed consistent dune growth of 27 m³/m, which contrasted with the substantial erosion in the adjacent unvegetated beach areas of up to 30 m³/m. One storm event caused dune toe erosion of 1.5 m³/m, but the dune demonstrated rapid recovery through natural aeolian processes. Marram grass development was not impacted by the initial planting configuration and density and was more pronounced at the perimeter edges of the dune. This study highlights the success of the ‘dune-in-front-of-a-dike’ approach, offering insights for sustainable coastal resilience strategies.

WebOfScience code

https://www.webofscience.com/wos/woscc/full-record/WOS:001216441300001

Bibliographic citation

Strypsteen, G.; Bonte, D.; Taelman, C.; Derijckere, J.; Rauwoens, P. (2024). Three years of morphological dune development after planting marram grass on a beach. Earth Surf. Process. Landforms 49(10): 2980-2997

Topic

Marine

Is peer reviewed

true