University leads largest ever research programme to take place on an atoll island

The work in the Maldives took place as part of the £2.8 million ARISE project
In the spring of 2024, researchers from the University of Plymouth carried out extensive fieldwork in the Maldives as part of the ARISE project
Researchers from the University of Plymouth have returned from an extensive programme of research on an uninhabited atoll island in the Maldives.
The fieldwork was the first to take place through the ARISE project, which is exploring the potential for the world’s low-lying coral atoll islands to survive predicted rises in sea level through natural flooding processes.
It saw academics, researchers, technicians and PhD students from the Coastal Processes Research Group working in collaboration with colleagues from the universities of Bath and St Andrews, and international researchers from the USA, Australia, Singapore and the Netherlands.
Together, and working with organisations based on the Maldives, they deployed more than 80 individual instruments on the island of Dighelaabadhoo, seeking to capture in-depth information about the energetic wave conditions during southwest monsoon season in the Indian Ocean.
The measurements generated by the instrumentation will constitute the largest field campaign ever to be staged on an atoll island, and the instruments will remain deployed until August.
The ARISE project is a £2.8 million, five-year initiative being funded through UK Research and Innovation’s Horizon Europe Guarantee programme.
It builds on extensive previous work by the Coastal Processes Research Group and its partners exploring the increased frequency of extreme storms, and the impact they are having on coastal communities across the world.

To fully understand the threats facing these islands, but also how they adapt to storms and sea level rise, you need a large and diverse dataset that includes information on waves, water levels, currents, sediments and island topography. The instrumentation we have deployed on Dighelaabadhoo will enable us to collect such a dataset, so we can see the impact of storm events and how an atoll island adapts to extreme wave and water level conditions. The data will also be invaluable for the development, calibration and validation of numerical models that are needed for predicting future island change.

Gerd MasselinkGerd Masselink
Professor of Coastal Geomorphology

In the spring of 2024, researchers from the University of Plymouth carried out extensive fieldwork in the Maldives as part of the ARISE project
In the spring of 2024, researchers from the University of Plymouth carried out extensive fieldwork in the Maldives as part of the ARISE project
In the spring of 2024, researchers from the University of Plymouth carried out extensive fieldwork in the Maldives as part of the ARISE project
The instrumentation deployed during the research trip includes tide and groundwater sensors, wave gauges, current meters, suspended sediment sensors, cameras, LiDAR, and a weather station.
They have been anchored using concrete blocks and scaffold rigs, and installed through drilling, coring and directly attaching equipment to the reef systems on which the island is formed.
To compliment these in-situ oceanographic measurements, uncrewed aerial and surface vehicles were used to survey the island and reef platform morphology, as well as the underwater bathymetry.
These surveys were collected in collaboration with a Maldivian consultancy company (LAMER), who also provided logistical support during the field campaign. Geophysical techniques were used to investigate the sub-surface geology and island hydrology.
Hundreds of sediment samples were also collected so that researchers can characterise the different depositional environments, as well as providing insights into the age and provenance of the sediments.
In the spring of 2024, researchers from the University of Plymouth carried out extensive fieldwork in the Maldives as part of the ARISE project
In the spring of 2024, researchers from the University of Plymouth carried out extensive fieldwork in the Maldives as part of the ARISE project
In the spring of 2024, researchers from the University of Plymouth carried out extensive fieldwork in the Maldives as part of the ARISE project
Researchers have deployed more than 80 individual instruments on the island of Dighelaabadhoo
 

Coastal Processes Research Group 

The Coastal Processes Research Group is an internationally recognised group of researchers, specialising in field studies of coastal processes and seeking to understand and predict the behaviour of coastal and estuarine systems. Research topics include:
  • beach morphodynamics and nearshore sediment transport
  • coastal erosion and storm impacts
  • video monitoring of coastal systems
  • coastal process modelling
  • estuarine processes and evolution.
The group operates a research-informed consultancy Coastal Marine Applied Research.
Coastal Processes Research Group Perranporth beach