Coastal Sustainability: Defence and Realignment (250601) – Course 2025/26 PDF
Syllabus
Learning Objectives
Students will acquire the necessary knowledge for the design of coastal protection works and strategies and the evaluation of their impacts in the adjacent coasts. This includes an overview of mechanisms and processes that generate coastal conflicts. It also covers the functional design solutions to these problems, both as a function of its origin and nature of the area where they operate. Students will acquire the necessary knowledge for the design of coastal protection works and strategies and the evaluation of their impacts in the adjacent coasts. This includes an overview of mechanisms and processes that generate coastal conflicts. It also covers the functional design solutions to these problems, both as a function of its origin and nature of the area where they operate.
Competencies
Especific
MetOcean main physical processes and their effects on the port and waterways infrastructure.
Port planning and operation.
Environmental issues before and after construction of e.g. a port.
Entrepreneurship and corporate social responsibility.
How climate change uncertainties can be managed to reduce risks when designing and operating resilient infrastructure.
Perform risk management (concepts and techniques).
Know how to make the stakeholders and community to work together to make a project acceptable and wanted.
Coastal hydrodynamics and processes.
Short-term and long-term wave climate.
Sediment transport and morphology.
Coastal and oceanographic numerical modelling.
Coastal vulnerability within a sustainable framework.
Developing beach management strategies for real-world coastal systems.
The basis behind climate change and its effect on the coast.
Design coastal interventions.
Understand and predict the impacts of coastal interventions.
Offer alternatives to hard coastal engineering.
Analyse and interpret collected field data in order to understand the physical drivers at short, mid and long-time or climatic scales.
Apply state-of-the-art wave, flow and morphological models.
Compute the risk, vulnerability and hazard analysis including the decadal (climatic) scale.
Generic
Design methods for ports, waterways and other coastal facilities.
Dredging and disposal solutions for contaminated sediments.
Design and operation of inland waterways hydraulic structures and riverbanks.
Social responsibility of business and entrepreneurship.
Develop knowledge and understanding of the coastal environment at an advanced level, applying classic (hard and soft) coastal engineering complemented with building with nature concepts, with ability to analyse, evaluate, assess and synthesis of data and information from different sources with contemporary techniques and technologies.
Handle engineering problems dealing with waves, currents, their interactions, their effects on the coastline and man-made interventions, spanning from short (storms) to decadal scales, to incorporate the climate change dimension.
Propose creative and innovative solutions by themselves or as a work group for current and future problems by enhancing their own interpersonal understanding, work as a team and oral and written communication skills.
Total hours of student work
| Hours | Percentage | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Supervised Learning | Large group | 45h | 100.00 % | |
| Self Study | 80h | |||
Teaching Methodology
The course consists of 3 hours per week of classroom activity consisting in formal lectures, classroom exercises with computers and round tables to discuss the results of the proposed home work.
Grading Rules
The evaluation calendar and grading rules will be approved before the start of the course.
The continuous assessment consists of doing different activities, both individual and group, of an additive and formative nature, carried out during the course (inside and outside the classroom). The grade of the course results from the average of the activities of this type. A non delivered activity has a grade of zero. In case of not obtaining a grade higher than five, the student may present himself for an extraordinary evaluation consisting of an exam. The maximum mark in this case will be five..
Bibliography
Basic
- Morang, A. [et al.]. Coastal engineering manual. Washington: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 2003.
- Herbich, J.B. (ed.). Handbook of coastal engineering. New York: McGraw Hill, 2000. ISBN 0071344020.
- Kay, R.; Alder, J. Coastal planning and management. 2nd ed. Oxon: Taylor & Francis, 2005. ISBN 0415317738.