Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Climate change is having catastrophic impacts on coastal areas around the world, and the effects of climate change are also expected to worsen as changing weather patterns drive stronger storms. These atmospheric events can generate extreme waves and storm surges, and drive cascading hazards such as coastal flooding and triggering of landslides into water. The recent disasters in September 2022 such as Hurricane Ian in western Florida, USA, which cost over $112 billion, and Hurricane Fiona in eastern Canada, which cost over $800 million, show that coastal regions are not prepared for storms of this intensity. The proposed research program will improve prediction of the responses to two major types of extreme wave conditions in coastal areas. The first type of extreme conditions are large surface waves and storm surges generated by major storms such as hurricanes. The second type includes waves generated by landslides, a major hazard for coastal communities. The research goals are to protect Canadian coasts from extreme waves and coastal hazards by: 1) understanding the dynamics of past and present environmental conditions; 2) predicting the range of possible future conditions; and 3) designing better solutions for protecting coastal communities and infrastructure. The research program has three related research themes. Research in the first theme will quantify the range of climate change impacts on dynamic fluid and sediment processes in the coastal environment. The second research theme involves experimental and numerical studies to design better nature-based solutions for coastal protection. The third research theme aims to investigate coastal hazards caused by landslides into water and submarine mass failures. The proposed research will focus on training 12 highly qualified personnel including 3 PhD, 6 MASc and 3 undergraduate students. The students will be trained to improve prediction of conditions in the coastal environment by combining new laboratory and field observations with novel and improved theory and numerical modelling techniques. The proposed research program aims to lead Canada's effort to improve prediction of extreme coastal conditions. This research will benefit Canada by training coastal engineering experts, and providing critical information for engineers, scientists, managers and policy makers to improve coastal resiliency. The discoveries will have broad and significant implications for improving prediction of conditions in the coastal environment, aimed at reducing the loss of life and the cost to rebuild infrastructure caused by natural hazards. This work will have a significant impact on a wide range of people and organizations, including private sector consulting companies, public sector government agencies and academic communities.