Sandy shore

Researchers at Ulster University have received funding from the UK’s Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) to examine how coastal sand dunes build up along UK coastlines.

Using state-of-the-art measurement equipment along with computer modelling techniques, they will investigate how airflow over coastal dunes behaves under certain unique wind directions.
 
The positioning of sand dunes at the coast makes them highly susceptible to environmental change and as a result they respond rapidly to storms, sea level rise, climatic shifts and the amount of sand supplying them. In many cases they help perform a natural defence role against storm wave attack close to low-lying inland areas. Understanding how they form and behave over time is therefore essential.

The existence of extensive aeolian (wind blown) dunes on coasts where the dominant wind direction is offshore is difficult to explain within traditional assumptions of dune formation, where winds moving onshore are believed to be solely responsible.
 
Preliminary research by Ulster, however, has shown offshore winds to be important mechanisms for the development of dunes at the rear of the beach (foredunes) and dune recovery following storm-related wave erosion.