Dune Guardian: Vegetation & Storm-Surge Buffer

Dune Management

Foot-traffic pressure 0.5

Boardwalk is protecting the vegetation — trampling has no effect right now.

Onshore wind strength 1.0

Simulated years / sec 1.0

Live Readout

GROWING — buffer building

Dune height

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Vegetation cover

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Simulated years

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Storms survived

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How the feedback loop works

Dune grass roots and stalks slow wind near the ground and physically snag blowing sand, so the dune grows taller and the plants grow with it — each traps more sand next season, a self-reinforcing build-up loop. A tall, well-vegetated dune absorbs and dissipates most of a storm surge's energy before it reaches anything inland.

Remove the vegetation — trampling, clearing, storm scour — and the sand-trapping mechanism disappears: wind now deflates the exposed dune between storms, and a shorter dune buffers far less of the next surge. That surge scours the dune's base and damages more of the remaining vegetation, which further weakens the sand-trapping ability, accelerating the next round of erosion. This is the same loop running in reverse — a self-reinforcing collapse spiral.

Boardwalk & fencing — routes foot traffic off the vegetated dune face, so trampling pressure stops mattering.
Foot-traffic pressure — how much damage uncontrolled trampling does per simulated year, only when the boardwalk is off.
Wind strength — how much sand is available to be trapped (or, over bare sand, blown away).
Storm surge — an episodic shock: erosion this event is dampened by however tall/vegetated the dune already is.

Vegetation Sand dune Storm surge Flooded inland

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