Interpretation of large-scale morphodynamic laboratory experiments: spoil heaps and sandbanks

Interactions between hydrodynamic forcing and the
seabed are presently not fully understood. A range
of techniques can be applied to the study of long
term changes of large-scale seabed features,
including stability analysis, primary component
analysis, numerical modelling, and selforganization.
To improve the understanding of
morphodynamic processes, and provide a
benchmark dataset to test and calibrate numerical
morphological models, a series of experiments was
carried out on the evolution of a mound of sand
subject to steady or tidal flows in the UK Coastal
Research Facility (García-Hermosa et al. 2007).