Flood mitigation potential by saltmarshes¶

Type of project¶

M.Sc.

Contact¶

Niels Jacobsen (ngj@dhigroup.com)

Topic¶

Recently, Jacobsen (2026) presented a new wave dissipation method in flexible vegetation that naturally accounts for the preferential dissipation on select frequencies (high frequencies for emergent vegetation) and low frequencies for low vegetation in deeper waters.

This master thesis project will investigate the applicability of the Jacobsen (2026) method for wave period transformation across a laboratory saltmarsh in a small-scale facility (Dermentzoglou et al., 2026) and compare the outcome against past wave dissipation formulations, e.g. Suzuki et al. (2012) and Jacobsen (2019).

The research objective is to verify whether the simple modelling approach by Jacobsen (2026) employing a fixed set of force coefficients rather than the variable coefficient set required for e.g. Suzuki et al. (2012) and Mendez and Losada (2004) is applicable to all of the 74 cases by Dermentzoglou et al. (2026). This will greatly improve on accurate predictions of the civil engineering functioning of natural habitats and nature-based solutions so they can become a trusted and quantifiable component in coastal engineering methods for climate adaptation and flood mitigation.

Models:

The master thesis candidate should be skilled in data processing, e.g. Matlab or python, and the modelling work will be performed with MIKE SW modelling software.

References

Dimitrios Dermentzoglou, Marion Tissier, Jos R.M. Muller, Bas Hofland, Stijn Lakerveld, Bas W. Borsje, Alessandro Antonini (2026). Transformation of 𝐻𝑚0 and 𝑇𝑚−1,0 over a model salt marsh. Coastal Engineering, 204, 104900.

N.G. Jacobsen, B.C. McFall, D.A. van der A (2019). A frequency distributed dissipation model for canopies. Coastal Engineering, 150, 135-146.

Niels Gjøl Jacobsen (2026). A theoretical approach for irregular wave attenuation through vegetation and application to spectral wave models. Applied Ocean Research, 166, 104915.

Fernando J. Mendez, Inigo J. Losada (2004). An empirical model to estimate the propagation of random breaking and nonbreaking waves over vegetation fields. Coastal Engineering, 51, 103-118.

Tomohiro Suzuki, Marcel Zijlema, Bastiaan Burger, Martijn C. Meijer, Siddharth Narayan (2012). Wave dissipation by vegetation with layer schematization in SWAN. Coastal Engineering, 59, 64-71.

Relevance to DHI¶

See text above.

What is the student's contribution¶

See text above.

References¶

See text above.