Physical model tests will be carried out in a large wave flume facility to minimise scale effects and to measure the overtopping flows and volumes of seawalls with a wide and emerged beach and relatively low freeboards, typical of seafront promenades in many urban environments worldwide. 

Premise: in order to have effective countermeasures, it is useful to understand overtopping processes in details. Assessment of risk associated to extreme overtopping events requires accurate characterization of overtopping and post-overtopping flow characteristics.

Novelty and challenge: a proper characterization of wave overtopping under climate change scenarios would be extremely important for upgrading the current methodology of design of seafronts and promenades. The use of large-scale facilities is to be preferred, which allows reducing scale effects. 

All the data collected during the project will be published as a public database, following the structure of the existing EurOtop (2018) database, with the aim of providing researchers and practitioners with a unique dataset that can be used to further validate numerical models or genetic algorithms for the assessment of wave overtopping of seafronts and coastal defences with wide and emergent beaches in urbanised areas. 

Premise: Data for seawalls where the toe of the structure is emergent (i.e. at or above still water level) is limited. Only one graph (Figure 7.10 EurOtop, 2018) is reported in EurOtop with no available semi-empirical model.  

Novelty and challenge: To contribute with unique data to the state-of-the-art. Data will be collected from experimental modelling and further numerical modelling. Particular care will be dedicated to validation and sensitivity analysis of the numerical model (see section 2).

Data from experimental and numerical campaigns will be analysed and existing international databases will be merged to provide a holistic interpretation of wave overtopping. Scaling laws for wave overtopping such as the momentum flux parameter  and the volume flux  will be analysed by means of data mining techniques .

Premise: wave overtopping on typical seafront promenade, usually seawalls on wide and emerged beach with low freeboard, is affected by wave shoaling and breaking which can induce the release of low-frequency bound waves. 

Novelty and challenge: a novel data-mining technique that combines and integrates numerical regression and genetic programming will be employed to derive a set of semi-empirical models. The outcomes, in terms of symbolic formulas whose general validity can be readily understood and used in different contexts, will help to design seafront promenades.