EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON THE IMPACT OF VEGETETATION FLEXIBILITY ON SUSPENDED SEDIMENT CONCENTRATION UNDER OSCILLATORY FLOW

Nature-based solutions are being increasingly considered as a favorable option to mitigate the impacts of extreme weather events due to climate change (IPPC 2021, Narayan et al., 2016; Sutton-Grier et al., 2015). Coastal vegetation has been proven to attenuate waves (Moller et al., 2014), acting as a buffer zone for coastal communities. Whilst wave-vegetation hydrodynamic interactions are widely researched, the impact of coastal vegetation on sediment transport remains ambiguous. Previous studies have shown that combining different vegetation characteristics can significantly impact the suspended sediment transport rate (Tinoco and Coco, 2014, 2018). Studies predominately focus on rigid vegetation, and often, plant flexibility is discounted. Here, we take the initial steps to understand the differences and the impacts of rigid vs flexible vegetation under oscillatory flow. We implement a novel experimental approach, utilising simultaneous hydrodynamic and suspended sediment concentration (SSC) measurements to investigate the impact of both rigid and flexible vegetation on suspended sediment transport.