Coastal hazard early warning systems (EWS) are an evolving disaster risk reduction tool that can provide information on coastal flooding and erosion along coastlines several days in advance of an impending storm, potentially providing a "window of opportunity" to implement a range of emergency responses. However, prototype and operational EWSs that provide quantitative predictions of storm impacts have to date focused primarily on the flooding component of coastal hazards. As such, it is

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... whether the modelling frameworks utilised by these EWSs are effective at forecasting coastal erosion along dynamic wave-dominated sandy coastlines where storm hazards are associated with rapid wave-driven morphological change of the sub-aerial beach. Herein, a prototype EWS modelling framework is developed at an erosion 'hot-spot' on the southeast coast of Australia and its performance evaluated to provide insight on forecasting coastal erosion on wave-dominated sandy coastlines. Immediately pre-storm surveyed bathymetry is considered as the ideal nearshore bottom boundary condition for carrying out EWS erosion predictions but is logistically impractical to survey at short notice whenever a storm approaches. As such, a more practical approach of using time-invariant synthetic/representative bathymetries was explored and found to be an appropriate alternative for carrying out operational erosion forecasts. The skill and accuracy of a new nearshore wave forecasting system and two established water level forecasting systems along the southeast coast of Australia were evaluated to identify the met-ocean systems that can be incorporated within the modelling framework of an operational coastal erosion EWS implemented along this coastline. The synthetic/representative alternative bathymetry and the met-ocean forecasting systems are incorporated into the modelling framework of a prototype 'hot-spot' scale coastal erosion EWS. The performance of this system was evaluated, and the magnitude of error introduced into the EWS predicti [...]