Abstract
The environmental value of coastal vegetation has been widely recognized. Coastal vegetation such as reed forests and seaweed performs several useful functions, including maintaining water quality, supporting fish (and, thus, fisheries), protecting beaches and land from wave attack, stabilizing sea beds and providing scenic value. However, studies on the physical and numerical process of wave propagation, sediment transport and bathymetric change are few and far between compared to those on the hydrodynamic roles of coastal vegetation. In general, vegetation flourishing along the coastal areas attenuates the incident waves through momentum exchange between stagnated water mass in the vegetated area and rapid mass in the un-vegetated area. This study develops a numerical model for describing the wave attenuation and sediment transport in a wave channel in a vegetation area. By comparing these results, the effects of vegetation properties, wave properties and model parameters are clarified.