Coastal dunes are naturally occurring barriers that serve as defense measures from wave action and storm inundation. To combat coastal erosion, sediment placement efforts consisting of man-made dune construction are commonplace to protect coastal communities and shoreline infrastructure. Few dune construction practices consider the differences between man-made dunes and naturally established dunes regarding engineering and ecosystem services. Vegetation’s role in dune stability has previously been well-documented through field data collection and laboratory experiments, including synthetic or transplanted vegetation. However, limited laboratory comparisons exist between these synthetic vegetation options and naturally formed vegetated dunes. A novel physical modeling experiment was conducted where a naturally established dune transect from the U.S. Southeast Coast was sampled and transported to a wave flume facility for testing under controlled wave conditions. Here, a naturally formed dune with established vegetation is compared to a sand-only dune and a dune constructed with synthetic vegetation. It was confirmed that both the naturally formed dune and the constructed, synthetically vegetated dune were significantly more effective in preventing erosion than a constructed, unplanted, sand-only dune. During testing, the sand-only dune failed 68 percent sooner than the natural and synthetic dune, furthering the potential of synthetic vegetation as a viable surrogate material for improving dune resiliency during initial dune construction.
