Hydrodynamic modeling of coastal erosion and its effect on marine ecosystems

Under the impact of climate change and anthropogenic activities, coastal erosion continues to endanger marine ecosystems, socio-economic systems and ecologically sensitive regions simultaneously. This study employs an integrated hydrodynamic modeling approach to understand the processes of coastal erosion as well as impacts on the broader marine ecosystem. Utilizing Delft3D's hydrodynamic power, resorting to advanced bathymetric datasets, this research constructs models simulating the interplay between sediment transport and wave action with shoreline retreat. The model validation through retrospective shoreline shift analysis, along with in situ measurements enables accurate verification of the rate of coastline erosion for different scenarios of storm surge, sea level rise, and surge events. Also, the damages caused by habitat degeneration such as beds of seagrass eroded, coral reefs blown apart and loss of biodiversity were examined thoroughly. Research such as this one stresses the importance of coast management policies that fuse the physical dynamics of coastlines with biological dynamics to create viable ecosystem-based management modes. Understanding the interaction of marine ecosystem health with erosion provides useful information for further enhancement of sustainable erosion mitigation approaches.