Benno Wachler

NH Natural Hazards

The 2018 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Award is awarded to Benno Wachler for the poster/PICO entitled:

Feedbacks of sea-level rise induced topographic changes of the Wadden Sea on tidal dynamics (Wachler, B.; Rasquin, C.; Winkel, N.; Kösters, F.)

Click here to download the poster/PICO file.

Benno Wachler is a research assistant at the Federal Waterways Engineering and Research Insti-tute (BAW), Department of Hydraulic Engineering in Coastal Areas, in Hamburg, Germany. His research focuses on potential impacts of future climate change on tidal dynamics and sediment transport in the German Bight (North Sea) and related impacts on waterways in coastal areas. Special emphasis is put on sea-level rise as it is the dominating aspect of climate change impacts on the waterways of the German Bight. The work is part of the BMVI Network of Experts, which is formed by seven departmental research facilities and executive agencies of the Federal Minis-try of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI).
The poster presented at EGU 2018 deals with a scenario of morphological response of the Wad-den Sea, which is considered most likely under a sea-level rise scenario of 0.8 m by the end of the 21st century. The poster focuses on a comparison between direct sea-level rise effects on tidal currents and feedbacks of the hypothetic morphological response on tidal currents. The results show that changes in tidal current velocities induced by the sea-level rise are mostly compen-sated by the topographic changes applied to the Wadden Sea. Considering scenarios of topograph-ic changes in the Wadden Sea allows for a more realistic range of estimates of sea-level rise ef-fects on tidal dynamics, especially on a local scale.