Mangrove forests reduce wave attack along tropical and sub-tropical coastlines, decreasing the wave loads acting on coastal protection structures. Mangrove belts seaward of embankments can therefore lower their required height and decrease their slope protection thickness. Wave reduction by mangroves depends on tree frontal surface area and stability against storms, but both aspects are often oversimplified or neglected in coastal protection designs. Here we present a framework to evaluate how mangrove belts influence embankment designs, including mangrove growth over time and failure by overturning and trunk breakage. This methodology is applied to Sonneratia apetala mangroves seaward of embankments in Bangladesh, considering forest widths between 10 and 1000 m (cross-shore). For water depths of 5 m, wave reduction by mangrove forests narrower than 1 km mostly affects the slope protection and the bank erodibility, whereas the required embankment height is less influenced by mangroves. Sonneratia apetala trees experience a relative maximum in wave attenuation capacity at 10 years age, due to their large submerged canopy area. Once trees are more than 20 years old, their canopy is emergent, and most wave attenuation is caused by trunk and roots. Canopy emergence exposes mangroves to wind loads, which are much larger than wave loads, and can cause tree failure during cyclones. These results stress the importance of including tree surface area and stability models when predicting coastal protection by mangroves.

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The coastline of Demak, Indonesia, has been eroding during the last 15 years. Coastal retreat in Demak is caused by a combination of mangrove deforestation and local subsidence due to groundwater extraction in the nearby city of Semarang. To restore the lost mangrove forest, permeable dams, consisting of bamboo poles with a brushwood filling, have been built to attenuate the waves, facilitate sedimentation at their land side, and thus create a suitable habitat for mangroves. However, existing designs required frequent brushwood maintenance. Therefore, a new type of design is proposed, consisting of only vertical bamboo poles without a filling of brushwood. Nevertheless, the hydrodynamic performance of this type of structure is not known. This study assesses the wave transformation through structures formed by bamboo poles for the physical conditions of Demak, Indonesia, with the numerical wave model SWASH. Field measurements and WaveWatch III data are analyzed to obtain the design conditions for the structures in Demak. SWASH is validated against laboratory experiments, and applied to investigate different structure designs. The model shows that for a structure consisting of two rows of bamboo poles, the transmission rate Et/Ei decreases from 75% to 55% when the row spacing in the wave direction is increased from sx = 0.42 m to sx =5.8 m. Even larger spacings do not result in less transmission, and at least three rows are needed to have a transmission rate lower than 50 % - a common wave reduction target used in restoration efforts with structures. This study thus identifies potential strategies to maximize wave attenuation by bamboo structures, which can be used to reduce wave attack along muddy coasts without the need of a brushwood filling. Hereby it provides an economically and user friendly alternative with respect to the previous brushwood structure designs, as it requires less material costs and maintenance.@en

Mangrove forests are increasingly valued as wave-attenuating buffers in coastal flood defence strategies. However, as mangroves are vulnerable to wave-induced erosion, this raises the question, how can the stability of these protective mangrove forests be promoted? To address this question, we investigate how mangrove dynamics in a microtidal system can be related to different types of foreshores. We used remote sensing to investigate mangrove fringe stability over multiple years in relation to intertidal mudflat width (i.e., emerged at low tide) and the presence stability of cheniers, which are sand bodies on top of muddy foreshores that are characteristic for eroding coastlines. In addition, we investigated local and short-term foreshore effects by measuring wave propagation across two cross-shore transects, one with a mudflat and chenier and one with a deeper tidal flat foreshore. The satellite images (Sentinel-2) revealed that mangrove dynamics over multiple years and seasons were related to chenier presence and stability. Without a chenier, a mudflat width of 110 m (95%CI: 76–183 m) was required to make mangrove expansion more likely than mangrove retreat. When a stable chenier was present offshore for two years or more, a mudflat width of only 16 m (95%CI: 0–43 m) was enough to flip chances in favor of mangrove expansion. However, mangrove expansion remained heavily influenced by seasonal changes, and was highly event driven, succeeding only once in several years. Finally, although mudflat width was a direct driver of mangrove expansion, and could be targeted as such in coastal management, our field measurements demonstrated that cheniers also have an indirect effect on mangrove expansion. These sand banks significantly reduce wave height offshore, thereby likely creating favorable conditions for mudflat accretion landward, and thus mangrove habitat expansion. This makes stabilization - and possibly also the temporary creation - of cheniers an interesting target for mangrove conservation and restoration.

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Mangrove forests effectively function as natural flood defences, and their deforestation has exposed millions of people worldwide to coastal erosion and flooding. Since mangroves require a stable sedimentary environment, stopping coastal erosion is a necessary step for their restoration. Bamboo structures have thus been built to induce accretion at the coast by attenuating waves. However, these structures often fail to rehabilitate mangroves, likely due to the lack of guidelines for their design. This thesis investigates the effect of structures formed by bamboo poles on waves, currents, and sediment transport, to develop physics based models for structure design. These effects were studied through flume experiments with scaled structure prototypes, field experiments in Demak (Indonesia), 1D morphodynamic modelling (with the model XMgrove, calibrated with field measurements), and remote sensing. Models to predict structure performance were developed for waves and currents. Flume experiments showed ways to optimize structure designs. For instance, wave dissipation per pole is maximum for dense rows of poles with large spacing in the wave direction. Modelling scenarios with XMgrove suggest that the optimal structure location is site-dependent, and that subsidence rates in Demak may be too high to be counteracted with structures. A large-scale method to find potential restoration sites was also developed and applied in Bangladesh. As such, the physics-based tools, together with the mapping method presented in this thesis, open up the path to optimize and generalize mangrove restoration efforts.@en

Mangrove vegetation constitutes a natural coastal defence against waves and erosion. Despite their protective role, mangrove ecosystems have experienced continuous degradation over the last decades due to human causes. At retreating mangrove coastlines, bamboo structures are built to create new habitat for mangrove colonization. Existing structures have experienced mixed rates of success due to the lack of a scientific basis in their design. Optimizing future structure designs requires investigating the effect of the bamboo poles on waves. We consequently conducted laboratory experiments to measure wave transformation, hydrodynamic forces, and flow velocities inside cylinder arrays, mimicking bamboo poles, with varying cylinder configurations and orientations. The experiments provided relationships for wave transmission, wave reflection, and the drag coefficients for configurations with volumetric porosities between n = 0.64 − 0.9. Configurations with a small lateral spacing (causing higher blockage) and a relatively longer streamwise spacing (causing less sheltering) exhibit larger forces and dissipation per element. Such arrangements enable optimizing wave dissipation at locations where the wave direction has low variability over the year. Placing the poles horizontally instead of vertically increases the forces and wave dissipation per element in relatively deeper water. Based on the experiments, we developed a conceptual analytical model that predicts wave reflection and dissipation through cylinder arrays, including blockage and sheltering. The model can reproduce the influence of cylinder arrangement on wave transformation, and it suggests that accurate predictions of sheltering and wave reflection are important to find optimal designs. Overall, these results provide useful insights on how to model and optimize the design of structures for mangrove restoration.

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Mangrove vegetation provides natural protection against coastal hazards like flooding and erosion. In spite of their economic and societal value, mangrove forests have experienced a worldwide decline due to human activities. Bamboo structures, formed by poles driven into the soil, are being used to create a sheltered environment for mangrove restoration. The lack of design rules for the structures has led to mixed success rates in their implementation. Improving future designs requires a better understanding of how the bamboo poles affect waves and currents. Currents cause drag forces on the poles, which depend on flow acceleration through the elements (blockage), and the distance from wakes of upstream cylinders (sheltering). We developed a model that predicts the bulk drag coefficient of dense arrays of emergent cylinders in a current, including blockage, sheltering and a balance between turbulence production and dissipation. The model could reproduce measured bulk drag coefficients from the literature within a deviation of 20%. The model also showed that anisotropic structures with small spanwise spacing and large streamwise separation maximize the bulk drag coefficient, and the energy dissipation per pole. The application of the model can guide the design of future mangrove restoration efforts.

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Mangroves protect coastal areas against hazards like storms or cyclones by attenuating waves and currents, and by trapping floating debris during extreme events. Bangladesh is a very vulnerable country to floods and cyclones, and part of its coastal system is thus being upgraded to a higher safety standard. These upgrades include embankment reinforcement and mangrove afforestation schemes seawards of the embankments. To further strengthen the implementation of combined green–grey infrastructure in future programs, identifying potential mangrove development sites near the polder systems is a necessary first step. We thus developed a tool to systematically identify mangrove sites throughout the coastal area based on open access data. This method identi-fies potential sites for mangrove development based on their distance from existing mangrove patches and suggests the required technique to implement the vegetation depending on the rate of coastline change. Our method showed that approximately 600 km of the coastal stretches placed seawards of embankments are within 10 km of existing mangroves, and could thus be potential sites for mangrove establishment. Out of those 600 km, we identified 140 km of coastline where the land-wards polders are particularly vulnerable to flooding. The sites with highest restoration potential and priority are located in Galachipa, Hatiya, Bhola, Manpura, Khangona, and Boro Moheshkhali. More detailed data collection and local assessments are recommended prior to executing mangrove afforestation schemes. Nevertheless, this method could serve as a useful systematic tool for feasi-bility studies that identify mangrove opportunities in data-scarce areas and help to prioritize data collection at the sites of highest interest.

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Mangrove-mud coasts across the world erode because of uninformed management, conversion of mangrove forests into aquaculture ponds, development of infrastructure and urbanization, and/or extraction of groundwater inducing land subsidence. The accompanied loss of ecosystem values, amongst which safety against flooding, has far reaching consequences for coastal communities, exacerbated by sea-level rise. To halt erosion various nature-based solutions have been implemented as an alternative to hard infrastructure sea defenses, including mangrove planting and erection of low-tech structures such as bamboo fences, permeable brushwood dams, etc. These structures have been designed on the basis of best-engineering practice, lacking sufficient scientific background. This paper investigates the use and success of permeable dams over a period of about 15 years, describing their application in Guyana, Indonesia, Suriname, Thailand and Vietnam, summarizing the lessons-learned, and analyzing their functioning in relation to the physical-biological coastal system. Also an overview of relevant costs is given. The basic philosophy behind the construction of permeable dams is the rehabilitation of mangrove habitat through re-establishment of the (fine) sediment dynamics – we refer to Building with Nature as the overarching principle of this approach. Our main conclusions are that a successful functioning of permeable dams requires (1) a thorough understanding of the physical-biological system and analysis of the relevant processes, (2) patience and persistence, including maintenance, as the natural time scales to rehabilitate mangrove green belts take years to decades, and (3) intensive stakeholder involvement. We give a list of conditions under which permeable dams may be successful, but in qualitative terms, as local site conditions largely govern their success or failure.@en

Over recent years, many coastal engineering projects have employed the use of soft solutions as these are generally less environmentally damaging than hard solutions. However, in some cases, local conditions hinder the use of soft solutions, meaning that hard solutions have to be adopted or, sometimes, a combination of hard and soft measures is seen as optimal. This research reviews the use of hard coastal structures on the foreshore (groynes, breakwaters and jetties) and onshore (seawalls and dikes). The purpose, functioning and local conditions for which these structures are most suitable are outlined. A description is provided on the negative effects that these structures may have on morphological, hydrodynamic and ecological conditions. To reduce or mitigate these negative impacts, or to create new ecosystem services, the following nature-based adaptations are proposed and discussed: (1) applying soft solutions complementary to hard solutions, (2) mitigating morphological and hydrodynamic changes and (3) ecologically enhancing hard coastal structures. The selection and also the success of these potential adaptations are highly dependent on local conditions, such as hydrodynamic forcing, spatial requirements and socioeconomic factors. The overview provided in this paper aims to offer an interdisciplinary understanding, by giving general guidance on which type of solution is suitable for given characteristics, taking into consideration all aspects that are key for environmentally sensitive coastal designs. Overall, this study aims to provide guidance at the interdisciplinary design stage of nature-based coastal defence structures.@en

In this paper the typical hydrodynamics on mangrove-mud coasts are studied. Worldwide, these coasts experience serious erosion problems, and while the importance of mangrove ecosystems is becoming widely recognised, mangrove restoration projects frequently fail due to poor understanding of the system, especially the hydrodynamics. Therefore, a landscape model of the eroding coastline of the Demak district in Indonesia is developed to analyse the typical hydrodynamics associated to mangrove-mud coasts. Owing to the fine sediment, these coastlines are characterised by gentle slopes, in the order of 1:1000 or less. Both the theoretical and numerical wave transformation have to be re-evaluated on such slopes, which is done by combining models with field measurements. Also the current patterns and density effects are studied in detail to generate a full understanding of the hydrodynamics on mangrove-mud coasts.@en

During recent decades, mangrove forests have experienced severe degradation due to unsustainable land use. Restoration of mangrove ecosystems requires the recovery of their habitat, considering ecology, hydrology, hydrodynamics, and sediment transport. In a first pilot in 2013, brushwood dams were built on the eroding coast of Demak, Indonesia, in order to emulate the function of mangrove roots and provide the physical conditions for natural colonization. However, at present there is little research on how soft structures affect the local hydrodynamics. The present study aims to improve the understanding of wave attenuation by permeable brushwood dams in Demak, combining field observations and hydrodynamic modelling using Delft3D. The findings of the study will be used to develop a landscape bio-morphodynamic model, which will be applied for planning future mangrove restoration efforts.@en