Conference: Mid-scale RI-EW: Concepts for a Full-Scale Wave Flume for Coastal Resilience and Adaptation; Newark, Delaware; 16 May 2023

Nearly 40 percent of the United States population lives along coastlines, where coastal regions are major economic drivers, contain transport routes for overland cargo, and have a wide variety of critical infrastructure at-risk due to extreme wind and waves. These locations will suffer increased flooding hazards to the built and natural environments, via climate change, through sea level rise, abnormal weather patterns, and extreme coastal storms.

The recent aftermath of Hurricane Ian in Florida in 2022 has demonstrated the destructive potential of increased waves and water levels. Yet, there is no experimental facility in the United States that can simulate holistic wave-driven processes at full scale to foster coastal climate resilience. This award will support a workshop to identify 1) the critical gaps in holistic coastal processes research and experimental facilities; 2) the needed characteristics of an academic-based, national, full-scale wave facility; and 3) the needed computational capabilities to support the wave facility.

This workshop contributes to the National Science Foundation role in the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program.

The workshop will be held on 16 May 2023, at the University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware. The workshop will identify critical research gaps in coastal processes of importance to the natural and built environment to foster climate resilience, including, but not limited to, wave-current interaction, impact forces on infrastructure, scour and sediment transport, damage and failure, geotechnical characteristics, and foundation stability.

The workshop will then explore the design characteristics and capabilities needed for a full-scale wave facility and the corresponding supporting computational efforts. The workshop will include participants from the United States and abroad, representing academia, government, non-governmental organizations, the private sector, and wave laboratories.

A workshop report will outline the critical research questions requiring a full-scale wave facility for inquiry and the design characteristics of such a facility. The report will be publicly available on the NSF-supported Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure DesignSafe Data Depot (https://www.DesignSafe-ci.org).

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.