Sea turtles are an important part of coastal ecosystems around the world, but six of seven species are endangered. Climate change and human effects pose many different challenges to sea turtles, including the flooding and erosion of their nesting beaches. To mitigate the rapid degradation of sea turtle nesting habitats, there is a need to develop nature-based solutions, which can contribute to preserving nesting habitats, making them more robust to climate change, and including them in designs of future coastal developments (e.g. flood protection plans or future land reclamations).
TURTLE aims at developing nature-based sandy solutions that improve flood safety of the hinterland while enabling turtle nesting. It provides methods and guidance to assess the risk of sea turtle nest inundation on sandy beaches for various beach-dune profiles. Supported by new observation data on hydrodynamic processes relevant for turtle nest inundation, a global dataset of beach sediment characteristics, and a global analysis of preferential environmental conditions, the project will provide (i) a metamodel to assess seasonal flood risk of sea turtle nests to help coastal managers with short-term decisions on the relocation of turtle nests; and (ii) engineering design guidelines to develop long-term flooding protection plans that enable sea turtle nesting on sandy beaches.

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