Overview
Coastal flooding threatens the lives and livelihoods of millions of people worldwide. In the UK, sea levels are projected to rise by 0.27-1.12 m by 2100 under low- and high-emission scenarios.
About this opportunity
Traditional hard-engineering approaches, such as seawalls, are becoming increasingly costly, unsustainable, and ecologically damaging. Nature-Based Solutions (NBS), including wetland and salt marsh restoration, are emerging as sustainable alternatives that harness natural processes to build coastal resilience. Beyond flood protection, these ecosystems provide essential ecological benefits, such as biodiversity support, carbon sequestration, and habitat provision, while adapting dynamically to environmental change.
Salt marshes are ecological engineers. Their vegetation dissipates wave energy, traps sediment, and stabilises shorelines. Plant traits, including species composition, stem density, height, and diameter, play a decisive role in determining how marshes attenuate storm surges and promote sediment accretion. Yet, salt marsh resilience is shaped by reciprocal eco-geomorphic feedbacks: vegetation influences sedimentation and hydrodynamics, while physical drivers such as waves, tides, storms, and sediment supply govern plant survival, colonisation, and community structure. Understanding these coupled processes is critical for predicting marsh stability and sustaining long-term protection.
Research Focus
This project will investigate salt marsh restoration in the Severn Estuary, a macrotidal system with extensive intertidal habitats, ecological richness, and complex geomorphology. It will explore how ecological traits and community dynamics interact with physical processes to shape the flood protection value of marshes. The study will also evaluate how restoration design choices, including marsh size, shape, channel configuration, and vegetation composition—affect ecological succession, geomorphic development, and resilience under future scenarios of sea-level rise and increasing storm intensity.
Research Approach
A distinctive feature of this project is its integration of ecological, physical, and computational approaches to advance understanding of salt marsh restoration:
- Hydrodynamic and morphological modelling (e.g., Delft3D/Delft3D-FM) with coupled biogeomorphic vegetation modules to simulate reciprocal feedbacks between plants and physical processes.
- Remote sensing and machine learning, using drone-based photogrammetry and LiDAR, to capture spatially detailed ecological data on vegetation traits, zonation, and community change.
- Interdisciplinary synthesis, linking ecological indicators with physical modelling outputs to develop actionable insights for designing ecologically informed restoration strategies.
Novelty and Timeliness
Salt marsh restoration is widely promoted as a cost-effective NBS, but the ecological feedbacks underpinning marsh stability and flood protection remain poorly understood. By uniquely combining ecological field perspectives with advanced modelling, machine learning, and remote sensing, this project will deliver new insights into the eco-geomorphic processes driving marsh resilience. The results will inform the design of nature-based, ecologically grounded restoration initiatives capable of sustaining flood protection under climate change.
Project CASE Status
This project is not a CASE project. While individual applicant quality is our overriding criterion for selection, the ACCE DTP has a commitment for 40% of all studentships to be CASE funded – as such, CASE projects may be favoured in shortlisting applicants when candidates are otherwise deemed to be equal or a consensus on student quality cannot be reached. This will only be undertaken as a last resort for separating candidates following interview.