%0 Journal Article %1 Franklin20181247 %A Franklin, G.L. %A Torres-Freyermuth, A. %A Medellin, G. %A Allende-Arandia, M.E. %A Appendini, C.M. %D 2018 %I Copernicus GmbH %J Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences %K 2018 from:erick007 %N 4 %P 1247-1260 %R 10.5194/nhess-18-1247-2018 %T The role of the reef-dune system in coastal protection in Puerto Morelos (Mexico) %U https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85046136540&doi=10.5194%2fnhess-18-1247-2018&partnerID=40&md5=c20129f830173f9ed3cc560530b6821d %V 18 %X Reefs and sand dunes are critical morphological features providing natural coastal protection. Reefs dissipate around 90% of the incident wave energy through wave breaking, whereas sand dunes provide the final natural barrier against coastal flooding. The storm impact on coastal areas with these features depends on the relative elevation of the extreme water levels with respect to the sand dune morphology. However, despite the importance of barrier reefs and dunes in coastal protection, poor management practices have degraded these ecosystems, increasing their vulnerability to coastal flooding. The present study aims to theoretically investigate the role of the reef-dune system in coastal protection under current climatic conditions at Puerto Morelos, located in the Mexican Caribbean Sea, using a widely validated nonlinear non-hydrostatic numerical model (SWASH). Wave hindcast information, tidal level, and a measured beach profile of the reef-dune system in Puerto Morelos are employed to estimate extreme runup and the storm impact scale for current and theoretical scenarios. The numerical results show the importance of including the storm surge when predicting extreme water levels and also show that ecosystem degradation has important implications for coastal protection against storms with return periods of less than 10 years. The latter highlights the importance of conservation of the system as a mitigation measure to decrease coastal vulnerability and infrastructure losses in coastal areas in the short to medium term. Furthermore, the results are used to evaluate the applicability of runup parameterisations for beaches to reef environments. Numerical analysis of runup dynamics suggests that runup parameterisations for reef environments can be improved by including the fore reef slope. Therefore, future research to develop runup parameterisations incorporating reef geometry features (e.g. reef crest elevation, reef lagoon width, fore reef slope) is warranted. © 2018 Author(s).

@article{Franklin20181247, abbrev_source_title = {Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci.}, abstract = {Reefs and sand dunes are critical morphological features providing natural coastal protection. Reefs dissipate around 90% of the incident wave energy through wave breaking, whereas sand dunes provide the final natural barrier against coastal flooding. The storm impact on coastal areas with these features depends on the relative elevation of the extreme water levels with respect to the sand dune morphology. However, despite the importance of barrier reefs and dunes in coastal protection, poor management practices have degraded these ecosystems, increasing their vulnerability to coastal flooding. The present study aims to theoretically investigate the role of the reef-dune system in coastal protection under current climatic conditions at Puerto Morelos, located in the Mexican Caribbean Sea, using a widely validated nonlinear non-hydrostatic numerical model (SWASH). Wave hindcast information, tidal level, and a measured beach profile of the reef-dune system in Puerto Morelos are employed to estimate extreme runup and the storm impact scale for current and theoretical scenarios. The numerical results show the importance of including the storm surge when predicting extreme water levels and also show that ecosystem degradation has important implications for coastal protection against storms with return periods of less than 10 years. The latter highlights the importance of conservation of the system as a mitigation measure to decrease coastal vulnerability and infrastructure losses in coastal areas in the short to medium term. Furthermore, the results are used to evaluate the applicability of runup parameterisations for beaches to reef environments. Numerical analysis of runup dynamics suggests that runup parameterisations for reef environments can be improved by including the fore reef slope. Therefore, future research to develop runup parameterisations incorporating reef geometry features (e.g. reef crest elevation, reef lagoon width, fore reef slope) is warranted. © 2018 Author(s).}, added-at = {2021-05-28T04:14:52.000+0200}, affiliation = {Laboratorio de Ingeniería y Procesos Costeros, Instituto de Ingeniería, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Sisal, Mexico; Laboratorio Nacional de Resiliencia Costera, Laboratorios Nacionales CONACYT, Sisal, Mexico; CONACYT-Laboratorio de Ingeniería y Procesos Costeros, Instituto de Ingeniería, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Sisal, Mexico}, author = {Franklin, G.L. and Torres-Freyermuth, A. and Medellin, G. and Allende-Arandia, M.E. and Appendini, C.M.}, biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/2cc4bee9cd3fe8026f02458eee9b4133c/publ_del_lipc}, correspondence_address1 = {Franklin, G.L.; Laboratorio de Ingeniería y Procesos Costeros, Mexico; email: gfranklin@iingen.unam.mx}, document_type = {Article}, doi = {10.5194/nhess-18-1247-2018}, funding_details = {284430, CB-2016-01}, funding_text 1 = {Acknowledgements. The first author is funded by a postdoctoral scholarship awarded by the Programa de Becas Posdoctorales UNAM-DGAPA. Financial support for this study was provided by the National Council of Science and Technology CONACyT through the National Coastal Resilience Laboratory (LANRESC), CB-2016-01 (project 284430), and the Institute of Engineering UNAM. Alec Torres-Freyermuth, Gabriela Medellín, and Ma. Eugenia Allende-Arandia acknowledge support provided by Cátedras CONACYT project 1146. Many thanks to Gonzalo Martín Ruiz and José López González for technical support, to CINVESTAV-Mérida for providing the beach profile, and to CONABIO for the bathymetry. Jeff Hansen and two anonymous reviewers helped to significantly improve the manuscript. Finally, we acknowledge Delft University of Technology for making the development of SWASH possible.}, interhash = {199fd7eab26452438da33d91541009fb}, intrahash = {cc4bee9cd3fe8026f02458eee9b4133c}, issn = {15618633}, journal = {Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences}, keywords = {2018 from:erick007}, language = {English}, number = 4, pages = {1247-1260}, publisher = {Copernicus GmbH}, source = {Scopus}, timestamp = {2021-06-23T06:18:42.000+0200}, title = {The role of the reef-dune system in coastal protection in Puerto Morelos (Mexico)}, url = {https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85046136540&doi=10.5194%2fnhess-18-1247-2018&partnerID=40&md5=c20129f830173f9ed3cc560530b6821d}, volume = 18, year = 2018 }