Coral reefs provide significant coastal protection against waves via attenuation and the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) provides this protection to the coastal regions of northeastern Australia over a large scale. The structural complexity of the GBR results in significant local variability in potential for attenuation across the shelf. Our understanding of deep-water wave transformation through such a complex structure relies on accurate off-shelf and near coastal wave observations. However, long-term wave observations are scarce, and conditions are often determined using global wave models at coarse spatial resolutions that are regularly unverified in complex coastal settings. We used a unique dataset of deep- and shallow-water wave observations near Cairns in northeastern Australia to verify our numerical results and assess wave propagation across the shelf. We investigated variability in coastal exposure to identify key local reef structures that significantly affect wave transformation across the shelf. In this talk I’ll highlight some key findings from our numerical modelling in the Cairns region and how this modelling framework is currently being used to inform sediment budgets on reef islands.
ZMT - Leibniz Zentrum für Marine Tropenforschung
