This chapter provides an overview of coastal hazards and the impacts of climate change that aggravate shoreline vulnerability. It reviews coastal protection measures including hard and soft solutions, and offers detailed discussion on coastal vegetation as mitigating measures to handle extreme flow events. As coastal vegetation has proven its role in mitigating extreme flows like storm surges and tsunamis, it is important to understand the physical process involved. Thus, knowledge gained from the works carried out in understanding the energy dissipation process has been summarised in this chapter. This includes a comprehensive literature review of studies on wave–flow–vegetation interactions, encompassing field observations, experimental investigations, and numerical modelling. Furthermore, the chapter emphasizes the significance of experimental studies on flow–vegetation interactions, with particular attention to vegetation representation, laboratory-scale effects, and the mechanisms of energy dissipation by considering different flow types, ranging from waves to inundating tsunami bores. An in-depth understanding of the various flow interactions with vegetation as soft protection measures will help in better planning and developing future coastal infrastructure.