| Abstract | The Living Breakwaters project is an innovative implementation of coastal resilient infrastructure that aims to increase physical, ecological, and social resilience by attenuating damaging storm waves, reducing or reversing long-term coastal erosion, enhancing ecosystems by creating structured marine habitat, and fostering social resilience. In order to meet these diverse goals, the Living Breakwaters have a number of unique features including reef streets and ridges, crenulations, specialized stone gradations and ecologically enhanced concrete armor units and tide pools. In order to reduce the likelihood for down-drift erosion, a balance between slowing longshore sediment transport to reduce long-term beach erosion and providing storm wave reduction needed to be reached. To inform the design and the benefits of the Living Breakwaters, an understanding of the wave conditions, sediment transport, and the shoreline response to the project were required and the design and performance the breakwaters, including the ecological enhancements, needed to be assessed. A suite of modeling tools and techniques were required to fully understand all elements of design and performance. This paper presents a summary of the methods used, results and lessons learned from the Living Breakwaters modeling program. |
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