Abstract/Summary

This paper gives an overview of the project Changing Coastlines: data assimilation for morphodynamic prediction and predictability. This project is investigating whether data assimilation could be used to improve coastal morphodynamic modeling. The concept of data assimilation is described, and the benefits that data assimilation could bring to coastal morphodynamic modeling are discussed. Application of data assimilation in a simple 1D morphodynamic model is presented. This shows that data assimilation can be used to improve the current state of the model bathymetry, and to tune the model parameter. We now intend to implement these ideas in a 2D morphodynamic model, for two study sites. The logistics of this are considered, including model design and implementation, and data requirement issues. We envisage that this work could provide a means for maintaining up-to-date information on coastal bathymetry, without the need for costly survey campaigns. This would be useful for a range of coastal management issues, including coastal flood forecasting.