Aquitaine ; Coastal dynamics ; Coastal environment ; Coastal geomorphology ; France ; Model ; Morphological coupling ; Sand bar ; Self-organizing behaviour
Double sandbar systems are common morphological features along sandy, wave-dominated, micro- to meso-tidal coastlines. Here the AA. use a numerical model to show that the relative importance of self-organization and morphological coupling changes
in favour of the latter with an increase in waterdepth variability along the outer-bar crest. Furthermore, they find that the typical alongshore variability in inner-bar rip-channel scale is indicative of a mixture of self-organization and morphological
coupling rather than self-organization alone. Morphological coupling may thus be more important to understanding and predicting the evolution of inner-bar rip channels than previously envisaged.
Australia ; Coastal environment ; Earth surface processes ; Hydrodynamics ; Model ; New South Wales ; Numerical model ; Sand bar ; Sediment transport ; Self-organizing behaviour ; Wave
and the evolving morphology (that is, self-organization) enforces the development of coupling patterns. The AA. therefore introduce a novel mechanism that blurs the distinction between self-organization and template mechanisms. This mechanism may also be extended