L. Portos - Amill MSc (Laura)

As a PhD Candidate within the MELODY project (ModEling LOwer shoreface Seabed DYnamics for a Climate-Proof Coast) in the Marine and Fluvial Systems group, I enjoy doing research while also being involved in education.

As part of my research, I study how tidal sand waves - wavy bedforms present on the seabed of shallow seas - interact with the tidal flow or with sand banks, which are larger and less dynamic than sand waves. For example, sand waves may be seen as an added roughness to the larger-scale tidal flow, given that they alter the flatness of the seabed. Furthermore, we usually observe sand waves and sand banks to co-exist, thus the underlying sand bank topography and corresponding flow affects the characteristics of sand waves and how they evolve. At the same time, the existence of sand waves superimposed on a sand bank may affect sand bank evolution. Knowledge on how these bedforms evolve and affect each other is relevant given that shallow seas, such as the North Sea, are heavily utilized by us, from dredging sand from sand banks to burying cables and pipelines beneath sand wave fields.

In the past I have studied other coastal-related topics. For my Bachelor Thesis I studied the long-term evolution of the Zandmotor mega-nourishment under different sea level rise scenarios. For my Master Thesis I studied barrier island drowning under different sea level rise scenarios using an idealized process-based model.

Furthermore, since September 2024 I am an elected member of the ET Faculty Council. I am particularly interested in representing the PhD community as well as the Civil Engineering & Management Department, with special focus on the wellbeing of employees.

On October 2023 I joined the board of Young-NCK (Netherlands Center for Coastal Research) as secretary. Since February 2026 I am the chair of Young-NCK. There, we organise different kinds of activities (social and professional) to strengthen the young coastal community within the Netherlands. 

Education

• 2022: MSc Climate Physics, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
• 2020: BSc Engineering Physics, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain

Expertise

• Earth and Planetary Sciences

  • Sand Wave
  • Roughness
  • Sea Level Rise
  • Model
  • Barrier Island
  • Continental Shelf
  • Coefficient
  • North Sea

Organisations

Publications

Other contributions

Research previous to my PhD

• MSc Thesis: Barrier islands face a gradual path toward drowning under most sea level rise scenarios
• BSc Thesis: Effect of sea level variations on the long-term dynamics of the Zandmotor mega-nourishment

Reviewer for the following journals:

• Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface
• Marine Geophysical Research
• Coastal Engineering

Research profiles

MSc Courses

• Lectures on ODEs for Mathematical Physics of Water Systems: 2023-present
• Tutorials for Mathematical Physics of Water Systems: 2022
• Seminar in Morphology: 2023-2025

Supervision of MSc students:

• Luc Dekker (ongoing): Modelling sand waves on a sand bank: role of wind effects
• Rowan Sonnemans (ongoing, external with Witteveen+Bos): Storm effects on megaripples in the North Sea and interaction with infrastructure: data analysis and empirical modelling
• Carlos Bedon Pineda (July 2024): Quantifying the influence of tidal sand wave orientation on form roughness

Affiliated study programs

As member of the ET Faculty Council, I was involved in the making and analysing of surveys to asses the effects of the measure to cut student TAs, both amongst employees and students. U-Today published the results.

Address

University of Twente

Horst Complex (building no. 20), room W218
De Horst 2
7522 LW Enschede
Netherlands

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Organisations