Coastal mangroves can mitigate tsunami, cyclones, and floods

Coastal mangroves act as bio-shields against natural catastrophic disasters, including cyclones and flooding. In a recent study, a team of researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay focused on evaluating how emergent coastal vegetation acts as a natural barrier against the impact of tsunamis. The team included Professor Manasa R. Behera, Department of Civil Engineering and Centre for Climate Studies, IIT Bombay; Associate Professor Amin Heidarpour, Department of Civil Engineering, Monash University, Australia; and Aditya Gupta, Research Scholar, IITB-Monash Academy of IIT Bombay, currently working as a researcher at the School of Environmental, Civil, Agricultural, and Mechanical Engineering at University of Georgia, U.S. To investigate the effectiveness of mangroves in reducing tsunami-induced debris impacts on buildings and bridges, the researchers created a smoothed particle hydrodynamics model, a computational method used to simulate the flow and behaviour of fluids, and observe complex interactions between water, vegetation and debris. Professor Behera explained that this simulation studied the wave interaction on the models of two types of emergent vegetation — rigid staggered vegetation and tilting staggered vegetation. Compared with the 89% reduction of debris impact with tilted vegetation, rigid vegetation reduced the debris impact on the column structure by 96%, Professor Behera said.