The role of spatially complex shoreface
roughness in sediment transport and deposition: A New Zealand case study
and model development. National
Science Foundation, Division of International Programs. L.D. Wright, Principal
Investigator, C.T. Friedrichs, Co-Principal Investigator
Proposal Project Summary
The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) in New Zealand
and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) of the College of William
and Mary in Virginia, U.S.A., have a formal partnership to complement and
enhance the programs of both institutes. Support is sought for an initial
joint project that will examine the roles played by complex, spatially variable
seabed roughness and morphology on the inner continental shelf in controlling
the transport and deposition of sediment by waves and currents. Complex
bed patterns are common and we need to understand these situations in order
to model the medium- and long-term behavior of temporally changing coastal
reaches. A New Zealand site offers an ideal field laboratory in which to
examine phenomena that are believed also to operate off the fragile barrier
islands of coastal Virginia. Multiple bottom-mounted instrumentation systems
provided by the two institutes will provide spatial coverage not possible
by either institute alone. Both institutes will also provide complementary
modeling skills. A basic product will be a numerical model applicable to
both U.S. and New Zealand environments. The iterative field and modeling
study will take place over the course of two years beginning in fall of
2000.
