| Summary: | Mudflats are coastal features present in numerous locations around the planet. Depending on the latitude and local conditions, mudflats can be vegetated by salt marshes or by mangroves and play an important role in coastal evolution. Vegetated mudflats can create a remarkable sea defense and their high ecosystem value has been proven by various studies worldwide. In this study, the response of a vegetated mudflat under extreme hydrodynamic forcing is analysed using, as case study, a specific part of the Guyana coast at South America. The sediment dynamics of the Guyana coast are dominated by Amazon River plume that shifts northwards and travels along the coast of South America till the Orinoco River delta in Venezuela. Mudflats are quite wide reaching tens of kilometres in width because of the high supply of sediment by Amazon and the formation of mudbanks along the coast travelling northwards and then westwards. The hydrodynamic environment is relatively mild as Guyana is located far from the track of tropical hurricanes; however swell events can occur caused by the North Atlantic cyclones. Despite of its mild hydrodynamic environment, there are often cases of overtopping of the seawall along Guyana coast every year with a severe and characteristic one been held on October 2005. This was the motive for the mangrove restoration project of the study area in 2011 and for the initiation of this study. The purpose of this study is to analyze the response of a vegetated mudflat under extreme swell and storm events and investigate the impact of vegetation on this response. Furthermore, the impact of the extreme hydrodynamic event on probable damage of vegetation is tested presenting the complete interaction between hydrodynamics and vegetation. The study area is the area of Chateau Margot, southern of Georgetown, where a mangrove restoration project took place in 2011 by planting Avicennia Germinans mangroves and field measurements were applied in the end of 2019 by the researcher Üwe Best. Using the 1-D process based ...
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