Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I'd like to know how scientists in a laboratory setting, set up a physical simulation of an ocean coast? I'd like to build a plexiglass tank 6 x 4 feet and fill half of it with rock and sand that would simulate a continental coastline, I'd also like to be able to create tide and turf with the best mix of water I can get that is close to ocean water.

Any tips at all? How would this been done in a real laboratory?

The caterpillar,

Thank you for your question. There are some large scale wave research facilities such as the Hinsdale Wave Laboratory, https://wave.oregonstate.edu, and the FloWave Ocean Energy Research Facility, www.flowavett.co.uk.
However, complex ocean wave and coastal processes are often modeled via computer simulationsystem such as NOAAs sea level rise viewer, http://coast.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/tools/slr.
For your experiment, long and skinny is a good bet. This allows coherent wave generation at one end that the "coastal effect" is not affected by the wave source itself, just the wave. Also, there is a scale depth that should be modeled.