Sand Dunes, Dynamics and Modelling

Abstract

The world's deserts show a variety of different types of sand dunes with fascinating shapes and patterns (Fig. 10.1). The focus of this chapter is on the dynamics and computational modelling of sand dunes and dune fields. This is again a complex problem, but in general the dynamics of sand dunes is governed by the interactions between (1) the atmospheric flow, (2) the motion of sand grains and (3) the dune morphological characteristics. We shall discuss these three topics in some detail.