Special issue  

Coastal oceanographic processes present important differences to deep-water oceanography, resulting in higher prediction errors, where bottom topography exerts a strong control on wave/current/turbulence fields. These fields are modified by many additional factors that include interactions with coastal infrastructure, stratification, river discharges, and many non-linear effects such as breaking waves or nearshore circulation typical of shallow-water domains.

The special issue invites papers tackling simulations, observations, and analyses of coastal interactions, supporting the combinations of coastal observations (in situ and remote) and new modelling approaches (structured or unstructured grids) to reduce predictive uncertainties or to include new processes (interactions with groundwater flows, damping by biotopes, etc.). The special issue welcomes aggregation of data sets (e.g. different Sentinels or combinations with other satellites); new land boundary formulations; advanced assimilation or error bounding techniques; and, in general, original papers that contribute to the advancement of coastal oceanography. Papers proposing criteria to enhance applications or addressing the multiple scales in coastal processes, from storm events to decadal or climatic scales, are also welcome.

The special issue invites papers from recent and ongoing research projects dealing with green engineering for coastal zones and from EGU sessions in coastal oceanography and which can provide advancements in facing the many challenges experienced by present and future coasts. The wide range of possible topics is open to the interaction of nature-based solutions with coastal processes, uncertainties in coastal decision-making, and the role of operational coastal systems in reducing the growing risks in these areas. Contributions exploring the potential and currently open issues of non-linear response functions, support from artificial intelligence, or downscaled oceanographic projections are also covered.

The special issue will build upon a number of recent EU and international projects dealing with green engineering for coastal zones. Among them, there are many H2020 projects (e.g. the REST-COAST project; https://rest-coast.eu/) and an increasing number of special sessions dedicated to these topics (e.g. EGU but also Coastal Sediments 2023). The special issue is open and welcomes contributions within its scope.