Influence of the wave regime in coastal sediment budget: present and future scenarios

Abstract

The wave regime has a strong influence on the sediment transport in coastal systems. Modifications in wave regime induced by climate changes can influence the sediment dynamics of those coastal systems. To access wave regime changes it is crucial to analyse the future modifications in the wave height, period and direction. This work aims to analyse the influence of a future wave regime in the sediment budget of a coastal lagoon inlet and at the nearshore adjacent coast. To achieve this goal a morphodynamic modelling system was used, forced by present and future waves, corresponding to a typical year of present and future wave climates. A methodology to determine a typical year of each climate was developed based on the determination of correlation coefficients between each climate and corresponding year data. The comparison between present and future wave climates evidences that wave period and height are in general similar for both climates, and confirms the anticlockwise rotation of waves in the future. The morphodynamic simulations revealed analogous results for both wave climates, resulting in similar patterns for the residual sediment fluxes, but slightly more intense in the present. The consequent bathymetric changes show that the deposition trend presently observed offshore the inlet tends to increase for future waves climate. The transport budgets were also analysed for both wave regimes, evidencing that the alongshore transport slightly decreases (~1%) for future waves.