Institute of River and Coastal Engineering

Funded by: State research grants—funding measure 5: establishing international research cooperation (Baltic Sea strategy), grant no. LFF-OS 83-2020
Hamburg Ministry of Science, Research and Equalities (BWFG)
City of Hamburg
https://www.uni-hamburg.de/en/internationales/aktuelles/2021-02-09-ausschreibung-landesforschungsfoerderung.html

Summary
The cooperation project aims at intensifying and reactivating cooperations with the universities of Szczecin and Gdansk, Tallinn, Klaipeda and Petersburg and to initiate further cooperations in the Baltic Sea region on this basis as well as to develop and establish an interdisciplinary research project as a result. The research focuses on coastal hydraulic engineering issues, e.g.: i) operational sensor-based early warning
systems for the failure of coastal protection facilities (e.g. dikes, revetments, dunes) or ii) effects of climate change on hydrodynamics, sediment transport and the morphological development of the coasts in the Baltic Sea region as well as the resulting consequences for coastal protection. In this context, joint publications will be prepared in advance.

Background
For several years, the Institute of River and Coastal Engineering of the Hamburg University of  Technology has been cooperating in research and teaching with the University of Szczecin (Faculty of Geosciences) in Poland, Saint Petersburg State University in Russia, the University of Klaipeda  in Lithuania, and since 2018 / 2019 also with Tallinn University of Technology (Department of Cybernetics, Wave Engineering Laboratory) in Estonia. In addition, the cooperation partners have also regularly participated in events of the international research network "Baltic Earth - Earth System Science for the Baltic Sea Region" https://www.baltic-earth.eu/

Work Program

1. Preparation of the project application process (01/2021-05/2021)
   •    Identification and selection of suitable EU or DFG-funded third-party funding formats (e.g. BANOS, Horizon Europe)
   •    Discussion/development of project ideas related to the goals of the selected RFP (request for proposal=project call)
   •    Identification and information of further possible cooperation partners 
2. Project outline (2021)
   •    Selection and elaboration of the project idea
   •    Preparation of the project outline
3. Preparation of joint scientific publications (2021-2022)
   •    Identification and selection of suitable topics
   •    Identify appropriate publication opportunities (e.g., journals)
   •    Coordination of the work to be performed
   •    Regular progress check as well as discussion of the status of the work
   •    Submission as well as review and finalization of publications
4. Production of the project proposal (2021-2022)
   •    Coordination of the procedure as well as the work to be carried out
   •    Regular progress check as well as discussion of the status of the work
5. Submission of the project proposal

Workshop program to support the preparation of the proposal

• Workshop 1: Kick-off workshop focusing on natural and administrative conditions (early 2021) completed, see presentation slides
• Workshop 2: Measurements of hydrodynamics, sedimentology and morphological developments in nature - measurement methods, analysis procedures and statistical evaluation of results (mid / end 2021)
• Workshop 3: Numerical Methods - Water Levels, Currents, Sea State, Sediment Transport and Morphology (early / mid 2022)

In parallel: hydrodynamic field measurements of waves and wave induced loads on coastal protection structures e.g. wave run-up on sea dikes (see Fig. 1 and Fig. 2)