Global climate change has led to many adverse impacts including changing weather patterns and an increase in the severity and frequency of extreme weather events. Traditional hard engineering solutions for coastal protection, such as seawalls and bulkheads, are becoming inadequate as they do not have the capacity to keep pace with the accelerating impacts of climate change. In response, there is growing interest in Natural and Nature-Based Features (NNBF), which offer innovative and adaptive approaches to coastal protection. NNBFs, such as salt marshes or living shorelines, have demonstrated potential for mitigating wave energy, reducing flood risks, and enhancing coastal resilience. However, the effectiveness of these features can vary based on their physical attributes and the specific environmental conditions in which they are implemented. The inconsistent performance of NNBFs has posed challenges for their widespread adoption, partly due to uncertainties in their efficacy and barriers in public policy.

This research focuses on evaluating the performance of NNBFs in attenuating waves through innovative field-scale prototypes. At the Whittaker Creek Canal project site, we conducted two field experiments to evaluate the effectiveness of NNBFs at attenuating boat wakes, which are practical emulators of wind waves and storm surge events. One field experiment was conducted before the construction of the NNBFs at the canal, while the other was done after. During the field experiments, we conducted trials by operating the same boat along the canal at different speeds and with varying weights to generate a diverse range of wakes. The varying set of wakes allowed us to simulate different controlled coastal hazard conditions, and observe the response of the NNBFs. Overall, this study found that these innovative NNBFs significantly reduced wave heights in the Whittaker Creek Canal. Boat speed had a greater impact on wave height than vessel weight, but both factors are important. Most notably, combining different NNBFs, like oyster reefs and Geotubes™, improved wave reduction effectiveness, especially at low boat speeds, making them highly effective under low intensity or daily conditions.

Here, a Jupyter Notebook is provided to a) Access the data; b) Generate plots; and c) Perform data analysis.