Gaelle Faivre of Griffith Climate Change Response Program at Griffith University presents insights from a collaborative research effort on "Wave Transformation within a Coral Reef Lagoon System."
Coral reefs encircle most of the islands in Vanuatu and provide natural breakwaters for coastal communities by reducing wave energy arriving at the shoreline acting to control both inundation and erosion. Climate change is projected to both exacerbate coastal hazards and endanger corals. The aim of this analysis is to better understand the parameters that govern hydrodynamics on fringing reef systems. The interaction between the depth, waves, and currents are studied from measurements made at the Erakor lagoon in Vanuatu.
