Rhythmic surf zone bars and morphodynamic self-organization

Work undertaken in the EU HUMOR project on morphodynamical modelling, particularly with regard to simulating and understanding rhythmic surf zone bars and related morphodynamic self-organization, is presented. These features are reviewed and their engineering context stated. Hydrodynamical and morphodynamical models developed and/or applied within the HUMOR project in order to address these issues are briefly presented. The linear stability modelling concept and stability studies using fully nonlinear models are contrasted. The stability of a shore-parallel bar under normal or oblique wave incidence is chosen as a test case for the different models. The results are compared and discussed. Lastly, modelling efforts and main results from the project are summarized. Recommendations for further work are made. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.