MOZES: RESEARCH ON THE MORPHOLOGICAL INTERACTION BETWEEN THE SEA BOTTOM AND THE BELGIAN COASTLINE

The sandy Belgian coast is situated along the southern North Sea. The tide in this area is semi-diurnal and is macro-tidal (ca. 4 m). The wave regime is moderate with an average significant wave height in front of the coast of 60 cm and 10percent of the time 2 m is exceeded (Verwaest et al, 2022). Within the framework of a new research project called MOZES, carried out in the years 2022-2026, the importance of the seabed for sustainable coastal protection of the Belgian coast will be addressed. It is well known that the dunes act as natural sea defenses, but less is known about these dunes along the Belgian coast being formed through a process of natural feeding from the channel-bank system (via the shoreface-connected sand ridges to the beach). The hypothesis of such a natural feeding is supported by the fact that the locations of three wider dune areas coincide with the landward ends of the three shoreface-connected ridges. This suggests that these ridges have provided sand to shape these dunes, a process that took place on centennial time scales.