Coastal Processes Research Group

phone: +44 1603 592529 fax: +44 1603 507719 e-mail: c.vincent@uea.ac.uk

last updated 27 March 2002

The School of Environmental Sciences (ENV) at the University of East Anglia has a wide range of interests and experience in coastal research, covering such diverse fields as geophysics, geomorphology and morphodynamics, ecology, sediments, physical and chemical oceanography, air-sea interaction, modelling, coastal protection, environmental risk management, sea-level rise, flood hazard, etc. Members of faculty and PDRAs have conducted research projects in many parts of the world, funded by Research Councils and by external contracts. The School is also well equipped to undertake a variety of survey work (beach, estuary and shallow coastal using TRK GPS), field measurements (ADCP, ABS in particular), PSA and chemical and sediment analysis of field samples. The Coastal Processes Research Group is one of a number of specialist units within ENV.

Coastal Processes Research Group Core Activities and Staff

Professor Chris Vincent, Dr Jon Taylor, Dr Duncan James, John Bacon, Adam Leadbetter

LEACOAST is an EPSRC-funded project to measure and model the morphodynamic response of beaches behind shore-parallel breakwaters in tidal regions to storms. The field site is Sea Palling, Norfolk where 9 breakwaters have been built. The project is collaborative between ENV (who will measure and analyse the hydrodynamics and morphodynamic response) and Civil Engineering at Liverpool University who will conduct the modelling using their Q3D morphodynamic model. The study will look at the response of individual embayments to single storms using instrumented frames to examine the hydrodynamics and pre- and post-storm beach and bathymetry surveys to identify the morphodynamic response

The larger-scale influence of the breakwaters on the longshore sediment budget is also the topic of a EPSRC-funded (CASE with the Environment Agency) PhD studentship currently being conducted by John Bacon

SANDPIT is an EC MAST 5 project coordinated at Delft Hydraulics by Professor Leo van Rijn. Its objective is to understand the processes controlling the rates of recovery of the sea bed to mining operations to recover sand. UEA is involved in the field work, providing acoustic instrumentation to measure sand suspended by waves and currents in the field and in large tank trials in Hannover

ECHO-MUD May 2002 – July 2003

ECHO-MUD is am NERC-funded programme to further our understanding of the backscatter of sound from flocculating sediments using a series of controlled field and laboratory experiments. The PIs are Dr Duncan James and Prof Chris Vincent. This work is closely related to the studies of mixed sediments being conducted by Adam Leadbetter in his NERC-funded (CASE with CEFAS, Lowestoft) PhD study

Other project with links to home pages where available

MAST 3 TRIDISMA (3-Dimensional Sand Transport measurements) Jan 1996-Dec 1998.

COSEDS (Coastal Sediment Transport Project) in collaboration with CEFAS, Lowestoft and Bullard Labs, Cambridge.

Also BASEX and DUCK experiments.

Other Faculty and PDRA with specific coastal research interests:

click on high-lighted names for further information

Dr Julian Andrews

Dr Grant Bigg.

Dr Neil Chroston

Dr Alaistair Grant

Professor Tim Jickells

Contact points. For further information about specific research projects or future research proposals, PhD/Msc research programs or contracts, please initially contact the appropriate faculty member. If you would like further general information contact Prof Chris Vincent +44 1603 592529 e-mail c.vincent@uea.ac.uk or the School's Research Administrator Dr Janice Darch +44 1603 59 e-mail j.darch@uea.ac.uk