Background
The nearshore coastal community identified three primary research themes, as documented in The Future of Nearshore Processes Research report (2015), including understanding long-term coastal evolution due to natural and anthropogenic processes. SEDCOLAB aims to address this challenge by measuring sediment transport processes under varying hydrodynamic conditions in a controlled laboratory setting, which will be used to better our understanding of fundamental sediment transport processes and improve numerical modeling of sediment transport.
Studying small-scale sediment transport in a laboratory allows for responses to be measured under specific wave and current conditions to be simulated, which can be used to improve the physics formulations and/or parameterizations in numerical models and to identify sources of uncertainty in morphologic modeling. Improving our understanding and ability to simulate small-scale sediment transport results in improved predictions of long-term morphologic change.
The Experiment
A collaborative community experiment
The SEDiment Transport COllaborative LABoratory Experiment (SEDCOLAB) is a multi-academic collaborative laboratory experiment hosted at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) Coastal and Hydraulics (CHL) laboratory facility investigating sediment transport processes and morphologic response to coastal processes under highly controlled conditions. The multi-phase experiment began in Summer 2024 when USCRP projects met in Vicksburg, Mississippi to coordinate project planning and logistics with CHL staff. This was followed by a Student Training & Professional Development week in October. The main experiments are taking place May-September 2025.
Goal
By collaborating and leveraging research efforts from different groups to collect and analyze data from projects all working on sediment transport in the laboratory setting, SEDCOLAB aims to improve the basic understanding, predictive capabilities, and observational technologies for extreme storm processes and support management decisions related to sediment transport.
Benefits
In addition to advancing the science, SEDCOLAB will foster coastal community collaboration. By improving communication between scientists and the coastal community at large, SEDCOLAB will facilitate the translation of scientific research into its use and application, encourage collaborations between academics, as well as with USACE; allow students to interact with other researchers and lab facilities, where they will learn skills like working with instruments, designing experiments, analyzing data; research outcomes will be used to improve numerical models and tools that can be used to help stakeholders understand sediment transport and morphodynamic changes at their sites
SEDCOLAB Gallery (under construction)
