This project (SHOM-IRD project 23CP01) is part of the strategic project MEPELS (Modèle d’Evolution des Plages et Environnements Littoraux Sableux), supported by SHOM to provide the naval forces with products that meet the operational need in coastal areas. In this case, the objective is to contribute to a system of models and observations to provide forecasts of beach slope, wave breaking, currents and their evolution over the period of an operation. The MEPELS system currently under development includes XBeach and CROCO models with their sediment dynamics. The proposed study, supporting a PhD student, is focused on CROCO, which has recently been enriched with a new bedload transport model based on the wave half-cycle concept. This model should improve the reproduction of onshore sediment transport by wave asymmetry – a long-standing challenge – and thus allow progress in hydro-morphodynamics. The test environments will focus mainly on two sandy beaches: the beach of Saint-Aygulf in the French Mediterranean and the Atlantic beach of Saint-Louis in Senegal. These same two beaches will be the subject of the observational study carried out by Rafael Almar at LEGOS. In addition, we will pay attention to the beaches of Duck and Truc Vert.
Garlan, T., & Ardhuin, F. (2009). A French project to understand and predict the short-term dynamics of sandy coast: ECORS. In Proceedings Of Coastal Dynamics 2009: Impacts of Human Activities on Dynamic Coastal Processes (With CD-ROM) (pp. 1-14).
Marchesiello, P., Benshila, R., Almar, R., Uchiyama, Y., McWilliams, J. C., & Shchepetkin, A., 2015 : On tridimensional rip current modeling. Ocean Modelling, 96, 36-48.
Shafiei H., J. Chauchat, C. Bonamy, and P. Marchesiello, 2023: Adaptation of the SANTOSS transport formula for 3D nearshore models: Application to cross-shore sandbar migration, Ocean Modelling, 181, 102138.