MODELED INFLUENCE OF LARGE-SCALE TREE COVER ON THE EROSION PROCESS OF COASTAL DUNES

Vegetated coastal dunes are a common landform along sandy coastlines worldwide which often provide essential contributions to coastal protection. In the context of climate change and sea level rise, it becomes more relevant for established dune systems to ensure a sufficient level of protection for adjacent communities and infrastructure (Mehrtens et al., 2023). During storm surges, extreme water level and wave attack cause severe dune erosion while overtopping may potentially lead to destabilization and failure. Established coastal dune forests -previously overlooked- have recently gained increasing scientific attention in this context, as they can cover extensive dune systems, either leading to stabilizing or de-stabilizing effects on the dune erosion process when subjected to storm surges. Which tendency of trees falling into the active erosive zone prevails is currently subject to speculations, as hard scientific evidence is entirely lacking. The novel aspect of this study is to present Froude scaled experimental research where dune-tree models are tested and multiple forest configurations are employed to extend the current understanding of the underlying, relevant physical processes of dune erosion dynamics in a wave- loading regime.