Activity

The MOSAIC.pt project aims to develop an innovative flood risk management framework for coastal zones, including estuaries, based on the integration of predictive models and real-time monitoring data, and taking into account the different dimensions of the vulnerability.

The scientific goal of UBEST is to improve the global understanding of the biogeochemical buffering capacity of estuaries and its susceptibility to future scenarios of anthropogenic inputs and climate change. UBEST will effectively support the short and long-term management of these systems. This goal will be achieved by deploying "observatories”, which are emerging tools that integrate process-based numerical models and their results, and in-situ observations. To promote the generalization of the conclusions, two Portuguese estuaries with very distinct characteristics will be assessed, the Ria Formosa and the Tagus estuary.

Co-ReSyF is a strategic initiative funded by the European Commission, aiming to support the development of coastal research through satellite data. This will be achieved by creating na online platform to support research applications that use Earth Observation (EO) data for coastal water monitoring (e.g. bathymetry and coastal altimetry).

BINGO aims to assess the impacts of climate change on the integrated water cycle, promoting risk management strategies and adaptation measures in an attempt to reduce vulnerabilities and increase resilience.

The co-ordinated and integrated approach of HYDRALAB aims at structuring the access to unique and costly hydraulic and ice engineering research infrastructures in the European Research Area. The network of HYDRALAB is unique in the hydraulic research community and has large experience in co-operating since its start in 1997. Over the years the network has grown from 8 participants in 1997 to a total of 33 partners and associated partners from 15 countries in HYDRALAB+.

Some of the world most densely populated cities are located in estuarine low-lying areas facing a high risk of inundation with a potential for significant economic costs. The hazards associated with these processes arise from the particular characteristics of those environments, as linking zones between river and ocean systems, and increasing human activity in their marginal and surrounding areas. This point is emphasized by the World Disaster Report that focuses on urban risk, as well as by the European Union's strategy for prevention of natural and anthropic disasters.

Estuarine ecosystems are extremely productive and provide crucial ecosystem services that influence climate, nutrient cycles and primary productivity on a global scale. Human-induced disturbance, however, has severely affected these ecosystems. The goal of the present proposal is a reappraisal of the ecological and economic value provided by an estuarine ecosystem, through integrated monitoring, analysis and understanding of the multiple habitats.

The number of accidental oil spills affecting the Atlantic coast of Europe in the last decades, has led to a growing concern regarding oil spill preparedness and response, and has motivated the development and implementation of different tools to be used in these emergency situations.
Close to shore, most damage occurs in sheltered bays and inlets, where oil becomes concentrated. In the last years different nationals and internationals administrations have promoted environmental directives aimed to the protection of these aquatic ecosystems (e.g. Water Framework Directive (2000/60/CE); Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD)).
To fulfill the aforementioned legislation and to prevent, prepare for, and respond to oil spills, two different approaches exist. On one hand, planning tools to promote an integrated and sustainable oil spill response capability in the regions are needed. On the other hand, operational oceanography systems that provide real-time forecast of oceanographic variables and oil spill trajectories are becoming a key element in oil spill response. Both approaches are usually based on monitoring and numerical (hydrodynamic and transport) models. In this sense, although noticeable advances have been done in modelling at a regional scale (O(km)), there is a lack of systems to be applied at local scales such as estuarine environments or ports (O(m)). More research is needed on solving small scale processes that affect the oil spill tr ansport and fate and on methodologies and techniques for developing downscaling methods to obtain local-scale atmospheric and oceanographic conditions from variables that are provided by regional-scale models.
The main aims of this project are, therefore, to: (i) develop a set of high resolution operational oceanographic systems in s everal estuaries or ports located in the Atlantic Area, and (ii) establish local oil spill response plans for these local areas based on risk as assessment.

The Ria Formosa is a lagoon system in the south coast of Portugal, having several permanent connections to the ocean. It is a highly productive ecosystem, of great ecological diversity and due to that it has been recognised very important at both a European and an International level by its acceptance as part of the Natura 2000 European network for nature conservation and a Ramsar wetland, included in the Special Bird Protection Area.

The Ria de Aveiro littoral is considered a flood-prone urban region. Despite some ambiguity about the future climate conditions in the coming decades it is expected that climate changes will strongly change hydrodynamics and morphodynamics in coastal and river environments. These scenarios clearly show that comprehensive and efficient approaches for the analysis, evaluation and management of flooding risk are necessary in order to back the emergencies plans and the urban planning and management systems.

MorphFeed Project aims at contributing to answer the question: how will estuarine margins respond to possible climate change impacts? Considering that each morpho sedimentary unit has a different dynamical response to controlling environmental factors, the final goal is the development of a conceptual model for morphological response to different climate change and anthropogenic intervention scenarios. To pursue this objective a multidisciplinary and integrative approach, based on the following hypotheses, will be applied: 1) present day estuarine morphology and sediment distribution resulted of recent geologic evolution including climatic variations; 2) estuarine margins are dynamic systems where physical, chemical and biologic processes interact; 3) nowadays, human intervention are one of prime factors that affects these margins.

MOWADI aims at: 1) developing a 3D morphodynamic modelling system, incorporating recent developments on wave-current interactions; 2) determining the strengths and weaknesses of these systems compared to their 2D counterparts; 3) improving our understanding on the behaviour of wave-dominated tidal inlets at various time scales, combining model applications with field and remote sensing data; 4) contribute to support management decisions on two specific Portuguese inlets.

Pilot testing of the methodology for early warning of health risks from faecal contamination in recreational waters will be done by integration of a coupled hydrodynamic-faecal contamination model for the Algés-Alcântara section of the Tagus estuary with the real time CSO monitoring in the same area. The pilot system will be prepared to provide early warnings, derived from real time now- and forecasts contamination model simulations. Such warnings could be used as a basis for the immediate management for reducing the health risk – and equally important – to provide information concerning when the event is expected to be over.

The ANCORIM project intends to strengthen the operational capacities of coastal decision-makers and managers in the Atlantic regions, with the aim of confronting coastal risks. To do this, it intends to create a network of the scientific and technical resources existing in the European Atlantic area, as well as to provide tools to aid decision-making, and to promote examples of good practices in the various areas concerned.

A research proposal between the National Civil Engineering Laboratory (LNEC, Portugal) and the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU, U.S.A.) is briefly presented, to support the development of the existing partnership between these two institutions. This proposal aims to integrate complementary research strengths at the two institutions to improve and validate a sophisticated ecological modeling system for operational forecasting of ecosystem dynamics based on grid computing resources. The Portuguese partner will provide the ecological model and the expertise on grid-enabling of numerical models. The American partner will provide the expertise on parallel computing and the benchmark for validation and inter-model comparison. The specific goals of the project are:

• to parallelize and grid-enable the ecological modeling system;
• to validate and assess the performance of the modeling system in a coastal benchmark, based on the wealth of data collected in the coastal observatory of the Columbia river estuary and plume, and
• to reinforce existing working collaborations and to establish a long-term relationship between the two institutions, through the identification of long-term funding mechanisms for common research goals.

G-cast aims at combining the novel computational resources provided by Grid computing and the team expertise in the use of existing state-of-the-art numerical models to develop an exploratory analysis of the impact of climate changes on the long-term morphodynamic evolution of coastal zones. This goal will be achieved through

• the adaptation of a suite of models within an existing morphodynamic modeling system to Grid-computing environment;
• the integration of this modeling system in a nowcast-forecast computational system adapted for the Portuguese coast, and
• its exploratory application to the analysis of climate change in the long-term morphodynamic dynamics of two contrasting coastal systems: the Óbidos lagoon and the Aveiro lagoon.

MADyCOS aims at improving the current understanding of the hydrodynamics, morphodynamics and potential for fecal contamination of intermitent coastal streams, through an interdisciplinary study that integrates distinct but complementing methodologies: field data acquisition, laboratory research and high-resolution numerical modeling.

• Evaluate the current situation of the Aveiro saltpans and define a study area;
• Establish relations between the lagoon hydrodynamics, sediment transport and the erosion of saltpan walls;
• Evaluate the impact of saltpan degradation on the lagoon dynamics;
• Contribute to the understanding of cohesive sediment transport and its effects on the morphological evolution of the study area;
• Evaluate the behaviour of traditional walls and propose new solutions.

The exploitation of superficial minerals deposits from the continental shelf as a supply of sediments for different activities (e.g., for beach nourishment, industrial and construction purposes) represents an interesting alternative to the usual extractions performed in rivers and estuaries, namely due to its quality, availability and transport.

The main objective of the project is to contribute to the understanding and numerical modelling of the wave breaking and cross-shore sediment transport phenomena in coastal regions.
More specifically, it is intended to:

• Perform scale-model tests to determine the RTFN at the beginning, during and at the end of the wave breaking process
• Develop a new wave breaking model based on the RTFN concept and to implement it in phase-averaged and phase-resolving numerical models for wave propagation
• Analyse the effects of the sea waves non linearity on the sediment fluxes and on the beach morphodynamics
• Improve sediment transport models and empirical formulae
• Develop a device to survey bottom depth based on fiber optic cable
• Carry out field campaigns for bathymetric surveys and sea wave and current measurements

A research proposal between the National Civil Engineering Laboratory (LNEC, Portugal) and the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU, U.S.A.) is briefly presented. This proposal aims to integrate complementary research strengths at the two institutions towards the development of a nowcast-forecast system for water quality prediction in estuarine and coastal waters. The Portuguese partners will provide the water quality models and the American institution will provide the innovative nowcast-forecast technology.

• Improving the representation of short waves though the implementation of alternative models.
• Apply global optimization methods to synthesize wave data.
• Develop methodologies to analyze and integrate spatially morphodynamic model results.
• Apply and validate the morphodynamic model at two study sites with contrasting settings (Ria Formosa and Lagoa de Óbidos).

The beaches considered in this project result exclusively from local wind generated waves in areas of restricted extension. Although the physical processes of wave generation and propagation and shoreline evolution are relatively well known from coastal areas, their occurrence in estuaries, lagoons and other systems of restricted fetch can be highly influenced by factors like shallow water conditions, tidal conditions and wind action. The merit of this project is the establishment of a methodology that can be generally applied to understand the physics of estuaries and other systems of restricted fetch in terms of wave generation and transformation and beach morphodynamics.

Process-based modelling is believed to give a detailed insight on the long-term morphological changes of inlets and the respective roles of tides and waves in driving these changes. The use of these tools is a valuable resource to support adequate management decisions at systems undergoing pronounced morphological changes such as the Ria de Aveiro tidal inlet and entrance channel. The main goal of this project is thus to study the morphodynamics of this area, using two distinct but interconnected methodologies: field work and several numerical modelling approaches.

There is a growing concern over sediment-related issues in coastal areas, such as beach erosion and harbour accretion. Numerical (process-based and empirical) models are increasingly used to evaluate sediment fluxes, in order to analyse trends and to predict the effect of human interventions. However, the quantification of these sand fluxes often involves errors of over 100% for current-driven transport, and much higher for wave-driven transport. Quantifying these errors and understanding their sources is therefore vital for the quality and credibility of many coastal engineering studies.

The possibility of a flooding in a floor of a building in Av. 24 de Julho (Lisbon) due to the tides and storm surges in the Tagus estuary is analyzed.

Updating of the multiannual dredging plan, covering the period between 2018 and 2022. It comprises 20 ports under the jurisdiction of Docapesca, where DGRM is responsible for dredging operations.

Examination of the Preliminary Design and the Environmental Impact Assessment of the Barreiro Terminal, in particular the aspects related to the fluvio-maritime access with regard to the dredging needs.

Assessment of the morphological evolution in the surroundings of the Vasco da Gama Bridge in the period from April 2009 to October 2013, based on information obtained in campaigns carried out by the concession-holder Lusoponte.

Assessment of the results of a monitoring program to understand the hydrodynamic and morphological behaviour of the lagoon during dredging works in its lower sector.

Physical model study on the morphological stability of the beach and the overtopping and overwashing conditions of the coastal structures which are part of the project. The artificial beach at Sal Island will improve bathing safety.

Study on coastal morphodynamics and sediment transport at the location of the water intake pipelines for the supply of the fish farm unit installed near the Mira beach.

Numerical modelling study of the hydrodynamics of the coastal system of Luanda, considering a possible connection between the bay of Luanda, to the north, and the Chicala lagoon, to the south.

Preparation of technical clauses and supervision of the studies on coastal and estuarine dynamics, mobility, navigability and maintenance of dykes in the Ria de Aveiro.

Characterization of the morphodynamics of the Albufeira Lagoon inlet, and its hydrodynamics and water renewal, based on the application of numerical models.

Prediction of changes in water and sediment dynamics at Nacala Bay resulting from a proposed new coal export terminal, based on the application of numerical models.

Preparation of a plan for the Ria Formosa with the main objectives of improving tidal circulation in the lagoon and using the dredged sediments in the strengthening of the barrier islands.

Reconnaissance visit to evaluate the problems of erosion at Varela beach and siltation in the port of Bissau.

Preparation of multiannual dredging plans for the maintenance of the maritime access to 16 ports under the jurisdiction of IPTM, from Vila Praia de Âncora, to the north, to Vila Real de Santo António, to the south.

Evaluation of the impact of the outflow of thermal effluents from three powerplants in Morocco, located at Cap Rhir, Bir el Har and Tarfaya, using numerical modelling.

Characterization of the morphological evolution, modelling of hydrodynamics and sediment dynamics and analysis of intervention options in the Minho river estuary.

Analysis of wave climate and sediment dynamics and assessment of the technical feasibility regarding the construction of an artificial sandy beach at Praia Formosa, in Madeira Island.

 This study proposes a set of interventions: to guarantee a permanent connection between the Óbidos lagoon and the sea, minimizing the frequency of dredging operations; and to counter the progressive sediment infilling of the lagoon.

Analysis of the morphological variations of the Porto Santo beach, assessment of its vulnerability to hydrodynamic actions and human occupation and proposal of measures for beach improvement.

Characterization of the morphological evolution of the Douro estuary and evaluation of sediment transport capacities by numerical modelling, to support dredging activities.

Identification of the causes of an erosion episode in Hac-Sá beach in 2000 and proposal and assessment of alternative solutions for beach rehabilitation, based on numerical modelling.

Proposal and assessment of an integrated solution for the following problems: erosion of the Leblon, Ipanema and Arpoador beaches; infilling of the seaward entrance of the Jardim de Alah channel; poor water quality in the Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas.