Dr Lucy Bricheno

Contact details

Position:

Leader of Shelf and Coastal Impacts

Group:

Marine Systems Modelling

Site:

Liverpool

Email:

luic at noc.ac.uk

Telephone:

+44 (0)151 795 4958

Profile

Biography

Dr Bricheno in a coastal oceanographer with more than 20 years’ experience in modelling surface waves and shelf-sea processes. Using spectral wave models, unstructured meshes, and coupled technologies to investigate coastal impacts of climate change. Lucy led the NOC’s involvement in ‘UK Climate Predictions 2018’ and contributed projections of future global wave climate, to the international coordinated wave climate project (COWCLIP) published in Nature Climate Change. She is work-package lead for ocean-wave-atmosphere coupling as part of ‘UK Environmental Prediction’ initiative in collaboration with the UK Met Office, and has developed wave-ocean-atmosphere coupled models under the European FP7 project Field_AC. With a special interest in international capacity building, she provides practical advice and develops modelling products targeted to end-users. Lucy leads work downscaling climate models to make long-term predictions of future flood risk from waves and storm surges in Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean seas. She studies land-sea interactions such as flooding and salt-intrusion, using unstructured modelling around the UK and China, and developed a new FVCOM model for Bangladesh. In parallel she is also working to harmonise novel observations with model products, through a synthesis of numerical wave and hydrodynamic models with satellite observations and shore-based radar. Lucy has published over 30 peer reviewed journal articles, including projections of future global wave climate, published in Nature Climate Change in 2020.

Example movie of surface waves travelling across the global ocean

Keywords:

Climate impacts on the coastal ocean. Model downscaling, and coupling Improved forecasting, flood risk, changing wave and surge climate, water security and salinisation.
Experienced with numerous models both structured and unstructured; atmosphere, ocean and spectral wave modelling; multi-core, linux, supercomputing; model development and implementation, pre- and post-processing;

Challenger Special Interest Group on waves

https://projects.noc.ac.uk/windwavesSIG/

NOC is affiliated to the Institute of Sustainable Coasts and Oceans

https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/liverpool-sustainable-coasts-and-oceans/

Roles

NOC – Liverpool Modelling Hydrodynamic Wave Modeller

Committees

Chair of Challenger Special Interest Group on Surface waves (2016–present) https://projects.noc.ac.uk/windwavesSIG/
National Partnership for Ocean Prediction (2016–present)
NOC IT-board member (2016–2018)
Member of the GODAE COSS (Coastal Ocean and Shelf Seas) international Task Team (2015–present)
Scientific Computing Advisory Group member (2014–present, Chair 2016–2018)
Participant in NERC’s Growing Future Leaders scheme (2014–2016)
Chair of Computer Users Group (2014–2017)
Secretary of the Computer Users Group (2013–2014)
NOC Liverpool Seminar Organiser (2012–2014)
Member of Athena SWAN Self Assessment Team (2014–2017)
Member of National Centre for Ocean forecasting (NCOF) waves working group (2012–2016)
Member of the joint coastal ocean modelling programme (JCOMP)
Member of Challenger Society, AGU, EGU, GODAE, ECSA
NOC is affiliated to the Institute of Sustainable Coasts and Oceans https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/liverpool-sustainable-coasts-and-oceans/

History

2017–present Head of climate scale coastal ocean modelling, NOC Liverpool
2016–present Senior scientist, National Oceanography Centre Liverpool.
2010–2016 Hydrodynamic/Wave Modeller, National Oceanography Centre Liverpool.
2006–2009 Post-Doctoral Research Associate, AOPP, University of Oxford.

Projects

Global wave modelling

We will contribute to COWCLIP – The Coordinated Ocean Wave Climate Project "The Coordinated Ocean Wave Climate Project (COWCLIP) is an international collaborative research project, being a component of the work-plan for the JCOMM Expert Team on Waves and Coastal Hazards."

Example movie of surface waves travelling across the global ocean

UK Coastal Hazards: Multi-hazard controls on Flooding and Erosion (CHAMFER)

Combining the risks from marine, fluvial, and terrestrial flooding with erosion and coastal vulnerability

EcoWind-ACCELERATE

Ecological implications of accelerated seabed mobility around wind farms
How will the placement of offshore wind infrastructure combine with the climate crisis to impact the seabed and beyond?

FOCUS: Future states Of the global Coastal ocean: Understanding for Solutions

2021-2030 is the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (UND) aiming at “The
science we need for the ocean we want”. In FOCUS we propose a multidisciplinary programme of
research to contribute to the goals of UND, building fundamental understanding and unifying
principles where challenges of global change in the coastal ocean are most acute, and to develop
and strengthen scientific partnerships to both enhance our capabilities and deliver international
science impact at the highest level.

image: combined coastal vulnerability around the Caribbean Seas

Climate Linked Atlantic Sector Science (CLASS)
CLASS capitalises on current and past National Capability and strategic programme outcomes to address four key knowledge gaps related to ocean variability, biodiversity and resultant functional capacity of the Atlantic

https://noc.ac.uk/projects/class

RASCALs: Subsea cables Adaptation and Resilience Scoping project
Rapid evidence assessment of the marine stressor to the global telecommunications network, using existing wave and seabed
current data to assess past and present resilience, and adaptation strategies for the future.

Image: typical wave height experienced around location of global subsea telecoms cable network

Salt intrusion: Understanding the Pearl River Estuary by Modelling and field Experiments (SUPREME).

EPSRC Reference: EP/R024480/2.

Image: FVCOM model resolution for Pearl River configuration

Addressing Challenges of Coastal Communities through Ocean Research for Developing Economies (ACCORD)

ACCORD is funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) as part of a National Capability, Official Development Assistance award (NC-ODA). The research programme is delivered jointly by the NOC and the Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML).

Understanding freshwater budgets and salt intrusion in the Bangladesh delta, for water security under climate change

image: rice harvest on the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta

Image: impact of changing river salinity on rice growing seasons

National Partnership for Ocean Prediction

This Working Group provides a focus on the observation, modelling and forecasting of ocean surface waves, in the global ocean and regional domains, particularly in the shelf-seas and coastal areas.

https://oceanprediction.org/activity-groups/surface-waves/

Commonwealth Marine Economies Programme

Enabling safe and sustainable marine economies across Commonwealth Small Island Developing States
https://projects.noc.ac.uk/cme-programme/

Image: swell waves on St Vincent

ESPA Deltas: Ecosystem services for poverty alleviation

This project involved producing hydrodynamic modelling (using FVCOM) for Bangladesh, concentrating on the Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta. The physical modelling will be combined with fisheries, river and land-use models.

https://www.espadelta.net

image: model grid and water depth around Northern Bay of Bengal

Rises AM: Responses to coastal climate change: Innovative Strategies for high End Scenarios – Adaptation and Mitigation

image: downscaled mean wave climate from global to regional model

Forecasting the future wave climate around Europe in collaboration with UPC and HZG. The FP7 EC commissioned Rises AM project was designed to assess coastal vulnerability to waves around North West Europe. For Rises I have generated a 223 year data set describing the global wave climate, and an equivalent downscaled European data set at very high resolution for future climate scenarios representing a range of high-end sea level rise projections. These outputs will inform coastal flood risk projections (following on from UKCP09), and help us understand the impacts of dynamical downscaling.

Image: Future change in mean annual maximum wave height - projection for end century under RCP8.5

https://www.risesam.eu

Field_AC: Fluxes, Interactions and Environment at the Land-ocean boundary. Downscaling, Assimilation and Coupling

Coastal scale modelling, downscaling, air-sea interaction and model coupling. This project is concentrating on 4 field sites; Liverpool Bay; The Catalan Coast; The German Bight and Venice Lagoon.

Coupled modelling is important way to improve physics at interfaces between the ocean/atmosphere/land. As part of the European FP7 Field_AC project (2010-2012), I developed a coupled modelling system, resulting in a pre-operational modelling tool for shelf seas. Combining atmospheric, hydrodynamic, wave, hydrological, ecosystem, and sediment transport models.

Image: Downscaled coastal currents off Barcelona

National Centre for Ocean Forecasting (NCOF) Waves working group

A special interest group combining expertise on surface waves from around the UK

Natural Sea Bed Disturbance

I developed the state-of-the-art POLCOMS-WAM model to inform CEFAS regarding seabed disturbance around the English Channel / Southern North Sea. This project produced a climatological wave and current data for the entire UK continental shelf from 1999–2008.

The ten year hindcast reflects wave and surge climate, together with sea bed conditions, wave and current generated bottom disturbances. This 13km resolution data has recently been published through BODC, and is available for download here:

https://www.bodc.ac.uk/data/

Publications