The Network for Natural Infrastructure® (NNI®) invites you to the “NNI Knowledge Series: A Continuing Education Series about Engineering with Nature—Rooted in Resilience: Laboratory Evaluation of Natural versus Mimicked Dunes Under Wave Attack,” presented by Leigh A. Langley, research hydraulic engineer, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Engineer Research and Development Center. This one-hour Zoom webinar will take place Thursday, Nov. 19, at 12:30 p.m. ET.
Coastal dunes are a critical, naturally forming first line of defense for flood mitigation during extreme water level and wave events. Understanding these natural systems is crucial to developing appropriate dune construction, monitoring, and adaptive management strategies for shoreline protection. This seminar presents a novel study through a collaboration with the University of Florida, which successfully sampled an intact, natural dune embryo from Northeast Florida and transported it to the USACE-ERDC wave flume for comparison to unvegetated and mimicked dunes. Under wave attack, both the natural and mimic dunes significantly outperformed an unvegetated dune, offering key insights for both the stabilization of existing dune systems as well as the design and construction of effective and efficient nature-based coastal infrastructure.
