Mohamed Shareef, a Maldivian engineering student was amongst a team of researchers at the University of Liverpool (UK) aiming to predict the threat of coastal flooding.

The sea not only erodes the coastline, but large waves can cause flooding, wreck buildings, disrupt transport and, in extreme cases, result in the loss of human life. The mainstream scientific consensus on global warming is clear: changes in our climate are real and will raise sea levels and increase storminess, escalating the threat of flooding and subjecting more land to wave-driven erosion.

Man-made defences, mainly in the form of seawalls, can prevent erosion and reduce the frequency and severity of wave overtopping. However, they do not come cheap. A kilometre of seawall in the UK can cost between £2 million and £10 million. The question of how best to allocate resources for sea defences is therefore a major issue of public policy.

In his PhD study, Mohamed Shareef focused on improving the prediction of the average discharge of water over a seawall during a storm of a given intensity under specific tidal conditions. In order to make these predictions, information is needed on the average height of the highest waves, the wave period – the time between waves breaking – and the prevailing direction of the waves, together with other details such as the height of the seawall and the geometry of the wall’s face.

The computer model produced by Mohamed can predict wave overtopping caused not only by local storms but also by a mixture of local waves and swell from distant sources. Mohamed also showed the value of artificial neural networks in making predictions in situations of considerable complexity. Artificial neural networks are computer algorithms which simulate the functioning of the human brain.

Mohamed’s PhD study was supervised by Eur Ing Terry Hedges of the University’s Department of Civil Engineering who is leading the team developing new tools to pinpoint those stretches of sea defences susceptible to overtopping. Other members of the team include Prof Hajime Mase of Kyoto University’s Disaster Prevention Research Institute, Dr Maria Teresa Reis of the National Laboratory of Civil Engineering in Lisbon and Mr. Ibrahim Bay of the University of Liverpool.

During his study, Mohamed and other team members published their research finding in journals and in international conferences. Mohamed also made a presentation at the UK House of Commons about their research.

MSA-UK congratulates Mohamed on completion of his doctoral studies and extends best wishes for his future.