Hu Zhengyu and Prof Pearl Li Yuzhu, Civil and Environmental Engineering, NUS, on 17 April 2023
Sea-level rise, extreme marine events, together with increasing flood risk due to climate change put coastal communities at a growing danger. Seawalls, which serve as a major coastal defense approach can effectively contribute to dissipating local hydrodynamic energy and protecting the shoreline from erosion. The existing seawalls are often designed to be hard structures. However, traditional seawalls have to suffer costly maintenance and repair, especially after extreme storms.
Therefore, investigating and optimising the characteristics of seawalls to improve their resistance against wave action is important.