| Abstract |
The objective of this proposal is to improve the impact and the quality of the European Research Council (ERC) staring grant project titled sandy Coasts protection and restoration. A computational tool for a better response to climate change effects (PRO-COAST).
The objective of PRO-COAST is to provide a computational tool that can help decision-makers to take the best engineering measures for the protection and maintenance of sandy coasts against the effects of natural events such as large tides, storms and even tsunamis. The incresing effects of climate changes in particular sea level rise and the growing intense wheather events make it necessary to promptly intervene to protect the worlds sandy coast, being this type of shoreline is especially vulnerabble to the mentiioned natural events
Through the implementation of innovative and accurate computational methods PRO-COAST aims to deepen the knowledge of those processes that induce loss of sandy shorelines and to get a quantiative evaluation of the different beach protection systems tht may be implemented coast at the current state, and those occurring after the implementation of a certain protection system. Such a computational tool would allow evaluating accurately the risks for the people living on the coast and their properties, to select and design the
most efficient protection systems against the natural processes that induce sandy beach erosion, estimating also their long-term effects and economic viability. Special attention will be devoted to analyzing beach re-nourishment methods. Beach nourishment projects essentially consist of adding large volumes of beach-quality sand (beach fill) from outside sources to the eroding shore. The computational tool generated from PRO-COAST will help to optimize renourishment operations and consequently to reduce the number of re-nourishment events, their costs and the disturbance to the life of the local population. Furthermore, PRO-COAST will allow understanding the financial, social, and environmental viability of re-nourishment operations taking into consideration the long-term predictions of global warming effects (especially, sea level rise). In other words, it will help to understand until when it will be worth realizing sandy beach re-nourishment and if it would be better to implement a different protection system.
As already mentioned, sandy beaches are highly affected by climate changes effects and it is mandatory to stay updated with the last observations and projections as well with the brand new protection methods. The economic sustain given by this grant will be employed to boost the candidates knowledge of the topic and to keep him up-to-date with the last developments in the field. The grant will allow him to attend to international thematic congresses, to enlarge his network, and to globally improve the quality of his proposal. |
