Project: ReX Coast: Redefining extremes in the coastal zone
Supervisors: Ioannis Karmpadakis (CEE, Imperial) and Almut Veraart (Maths, Imperial)
Project Description:
The project seeks to employ advanced statistical methods and machine learning for improved representations of extreme waves in the coastal zone. It builds upon a series of experimental and numerical projects conducted in the Hydrodynamics laboratory over the last 4 years. It expands on these by using novel methods (e.g. PINNs) to enhance the physical understanding of complex stochastic processes and provide practical tools suitable for design and future climate impact assessment. Specifically, we will (a) develop spatiotemporal models for the evolution of waves over complex bathymetry, and (b) integrate them with the long-term distribution of storms in the framework of multivariate extreme value analysis. Alongside theoretical developments, we will generate a new experimental dataset uniquely designed to track extreme waves from generation to full decay using a large array of high-definition cameras and machine vision. The work goes beyond providing new design guidelines in coastal engineering and seeks to define a robust framework to base future climate impact assessment on the built and natural (coastal) environment. As such, it aligns with national and international initiatives on climate change resilience, data-centric engineering and its outcomes will feed into evidence-based policymaking.
