Nature-Based Coastal Protection by Large Woody Debris as Compared to Seawalls: A Physical Model Study of Beach Morphology and Wave Reflection

Anchored Large Woody Debris (LWD) is increasingly being used as one of several nature-based coastal protection strategies along the north-western coasts Canada and US. As an alternative to conventional hard armoring (e.g., seawalls), its usage widely considered be less harmful ecosystem while maintaining ability protect beaches against wave attack erosion. The effects seawalls on have been extensively studied; however, performance efficacy LWD potential a suitable (and other shoreline structures) are still understudied in current research. This paper presents compares vertical seawall with two different structures beach morphology reflection through large-scale physical modeling flume at 1:5 scale. An assessment techniques measure model were included study. It was found that could reduced by using single log instead wall structure, changes response largely depended type structure. A stacked showed near-identical behavior seawall. Visible from experiments, including effect sidewalls morphology, quantified analyzed inform future