Tegan Quinn

Vulnerability of coastal energy infrastructure to climate and environmental change

Name: Tegan Quinn
Primary Supervisor: Dr Rachel Smedley
Year: 1
Discipline: Environmental Science
Presentation type: 3-minute talk
Project Title: Vulnerability of coastal energy infrastructure to climate and environmental change

Abstract:

Gravel barriers can act as a natural defence to critical coastal infrastructure. Evidence suggests that aggregate extraction areas in the English Channel include sites of drowned mixed-gravel barriers, based on bathymetric and seismic data. These can be used to evaluate shallow geology, dynamics and morphology to reconstruct morphodynamic processes. Reconstructing historical barrier dynamics in the English Channel using optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating alongside interpreting seismic profiles to map the observed sedimentology below the seabed can create an analogue for historical barrier responses to sea level rise which can then be applied to similar environments that exist today such as Chesil beach using numerical modelling.