Tony Dolphin

I am broadly interested in issues of coastal change and the processes which shape coastal sedimentary environments. My research interests are focused on estuarine/coastal geomorphology, geophysical processes and sediment transport. Following the completion of my PhD (Wave-Induced Sediment Transport on Estuarine Intertidal Flats) in 2004, I was actively involved in the EU funded SandPit project and the EPSRC funded LEACOAST project. At present, I am a co-investigator on the multi-institutional LEACOAST2 project, which investigates the ‘Longer-term effects of shore-parallel breakwaters at Sea Palling on coastal morphodynamics’ (2005–8);  I am also working on a NERC project, Blinks, that attempts to understand the relationships between changes in coastal sandbanks and the responses on adjacent beaches (2004-7). 

Coastal, beach and estuarine processes; coastal erosion and protection; sediment transport in the coastal zone; 'morphodynamics' evolution of coasts.

Significant Publications

• Dolphin, T.J. and Green, M.O. (2009). Patterns of wave-orbital speed and skin friction under estuarine (fetch-limited) waves. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue 56,  in press.
• Dolphin, T.J., Grasmeijer, B.T. and Vincent, C.E., (2005). Sand suspension due to waves and tidal flow over shore and long wave ripples and flat beds on the Dutch shoreface. In van Rijn, L.C., Soulsby, R.L., Hoekstra, P. and Davies, A.G. (eds), SANDPIT: Sand Transport and Morphology of Offshore Mining Pits, ISBN 90-800356-7-X, pp T1-T10.
• Dolphin, T.J., Taylor, J.A., Vincent, C.E., Bacon, J.B., Pan, S., and O’Conner, B.A., (2004). Storm-scale effects of shore-parallel breakwaters on beaches in a tidal setting (LEACOAST). In Proceedings of the 29th International Conference on Coastal Engineering, Lisbon, Portugal, 2004, 3: 2849-2861 
• Dolphin, T.J., Green, M.O., Radford, J.D.J and Black, K.P., (2001). Biofouling of optical backscatter sensors: Prevention and analytical correction of data. Journal of Coastal Research, 34(SI), 334–341. 
• Green, M.O., Bell, R.G., Dolphin, T.J. and Swales, A.J., (2000). Silt and sand transport in a deep tidal channel of a large estuary (Manukau Harbour, New Zealand). Marine Geology, 163: 217-240. 
• Drabsch, J.M., Parnell, K.E., Hume, T.M. and Dolphin, T.J., (1999). The capillary fringe and the water table in an intertidal estuarine sand flat. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 48: 215-222. 
• Dolphin, T.J., Hume, T.M. and Parnell, K.E., (1995). Oceanographic processes and sediment mixing on a sand flat in an enclosed sea, Manukau Harbour, New Zealand. Marine Geology, 128: 169-181.