Francisco Taveira Pinto

The practice of coastal zone management in Portugal

The practice of coastal zone management in Portugal is very recent. Key issues and considerations about natural shoreline dynamics, main policy instruments, and lessons learned from the EU Demonstration Programmes on Integrated Coastal Zone Management in Portugal will be outlined in this paper in an attempt to understand how the practice of ICZM and its prospects are. Coastal zone management problems and their associated side effects, as well as national and international evolution patterns will be drawn. Some means of achieving better coastal zone management practices and ways of addressing some of its forefront issues are also identified. Special attention will go to erosion problems. The pressure induced by urban development and economic activities on coastal areas is increasing. Poor sediment availability combined with years of neglected management and over-exploitation of resources have had a negative impact, and there are many areas showing evidence of coastal erosion. There is a need to improve policies and instruments of coastal planning and management. Coastal zone management plans are being developed for the nine sectors of the continental Portuguese coast, providing a full analysis of coastal systems and a delimitation of uses in relation to the carrying capacity of the shoreline.

Artificial intelligence applied to plane wave reflection at submerged breakwaters

The reflection process at submerged breakwaters is investigated by means of an artificial neural network (ANN) model. This model estimates the reflection coefficient based on three dimensionless products which are functions of the wave parameters and the characteristics of the submerged breakwater. The data used for training the model were obtained from an extensive experimental campaign in which seven models of submerged breakwaters were tested under irregular waves combinations. To choose the neural network architecture best suited for this problem, the performances of 400 ANN models involving 10 different architectures are assessed. Having selected the most appropiate architecture, the model was succesfully trained and validated. Excellent agreement was achieved between the models results and the experimental data. The new artificial intelligence model can be used as a virtual laboratory to predict the reflection coefficient without a need for a physical model test.

Environmental aspects of using detached breakwaters for coastal protection purposes

The aggravation of erosion, with the consequent reduction and, at the limit, disappearance of beaches has great impact in the environment of the area, in tourism and economy of regions affected by this problem. Submerged breakwaters are one possible solution from a wide variety of coastal structures to combat this problem, with reduced environmental and visual impacts than in similar defence structures. However, this solution has also some disadvantages that will be described. This paper intends to present some environmental aspects related with the hydrodynamic phenomena of detached breakwaters (submerged or not) and some of the main advantages and disadvantages of this type of coastal protection solution. The performance of this kind of solution in other countries (such as Italy, Japan, Spain, etc.) has been mostly successful but its use on the Portuguese coast is still a possibility, needing further investigation, due to the high energetic wave levels observed. Some of the main difficulties on its application will also be described.

Feasibility of a dynamically stable rock armour layer scour protection for offshore wind farms

Armour layer scour protections around offshore wind turbine foundations are commonly designed to provide a static protection in storm conditions, which means no or limited movement of rock is allowed (Den Boon et al., 2004, De Vos et al., 2011). This approach often results in large stone sizes and high scour protection costs. Therefore, a dynamic approach can be an interesting alternative. Such a dynamic design can be achieved by decreasing the armour stone size allowing movement of the stones and increasing the armour layer thickness to prevent filter layer exposure. A physical test program was conducted to investigate the feasibility and behaviour of such a dynamically stable scour protection. In this model, a monopile foundation exposed to typical North Sea combinations of unidirectional currents and waves was reproduced in a wave flume. The program included a number of test series each with different water depths. In each test series, the armour layer stone size and the armour layer thickness were varied, in order to obtain a reshaping scour protection, without filter material exposure. Damage and failure were assessed both visually and using a 3D-laser profiler. Because previous works on damage numbers of rock armour layer scour protections mainly focus on static design, a new damage number was introduced and compared to the visual observation. This allowed the definition of a ‘dynamic area’ between static design and failure. Scour pit development in time and equilibrium profiling were also analyzed. The results of the tests showed that the concept of a dynamically stable scour protection is feasible.

Regular water wave measurements near submerged breakwaters

Submerged breakwaters are an important type of structure, used to protect the shore from the effect of waves. In a first step towards understanding the action and transformation of the flow, a model of such a structure was set up. The facility and the measuring technique with a two-dimensional LDA are described. Measurements were performed, yielding information on the complex interaction between the periodic flow of the waves and the structure. Phase average properties of the mean velocity field were calculated as well as phase-averaged rms values of the velocity fluctuations, through the measured values.

People, Communities, and Education at the Coast

This special issue titled “People,Communities, and Education at the Coast” of the Journal of Coastal Conservation, Planning and Management (JCCPM) gathers 8 of the submitted contributions to the 3rd International Conference on Coastal Conservation and Management in the Atlantic and Mediterranean (ICCCM10), held at Estoril, Portugal, in April 2010. The conference was attended by 800 participants from twenty-one countries, providing an expanded forum for scientists, engineers, planners and managers to discuss recent and new advances in scientific, technical, and socio-economic understanding of environmental issues related to coastal processes. The eight papers in this issue cover several aspects from governance, social sustainability, public perception to environmental education. The paper by Vasconcelos et al. presents the MARGov project, using as a case study the Marine Park Professor Luiz Saldanha (Portugal) to build a Model of Collaborative Governance for Marine Protected Areas, to empower local communities enabling them to be agents for change for the sustainable governance of the Ocean, through an eco-social dialogue supported by active participation. Kalisch examines the crowding effects in a coastal National Park in Germany, using the social carrying capacity concept as a tool to coastal recreation management. Concerning coastal protection of sand dune systems in Portugal, Mendonca et al. describes an application of the Boussinesq-type COULWAVE model to study the wave hydrodynamics in the vicinity of a multi-functional artificial reef. From the public perception perspective, Baumann et al. examine the impact of the occurrence of jellyfish along the German Baltic coastline, show different methods to learn more about jellyfish accumulations and discuss information strategies in terms of improved beach management. Ferreira et al. present a beach profiling method to improve understanding of coastal processes by providing quantitative information on the spatial/ temporal evolution of beaches, which is crucial for coastal management and useful for environmental education. Quintela et al. focus on public perception of bathing users regarding Bathing Area quality in Sao Miguel (Portugal), namely litter, one of the top concerns of the users. Root-Bernstein et al. discuss and propose innovative and effective design solutions of multiple product proposals that would support a range of human-sea lion interactions in public parks and the fish market in Valdivia, Chile. Using local tidal records to identify relative sea level change, Powell et al. examine some of the key sources of error when working with historical tidal datasets in local geographic areas. They also identify the limitations of locally derived data thereby assisting in the determination of relative sea level trends that are of widespread value to infrastructure and policy makers. We wish to thank the authors and the reviewers for their valuable efforts, and the Editor for his support in producing this special issue Paula Sobral, Jose Carlos Ferreira and Francisco Taveira Pinto P. Sobral (*) IMAR – Institute for Marine Research, Faculty of Sciences & Technology, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Campus da Caparica, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal e-mail: psobral@fct.unl.pt

GIS and web-based information as innovative tools for coastal zone management

This special issue titled “GIS and Web-Based Information as innovative tools for coastal zone management” of the Journal of Coastal Conservation, Planning and Management (JCCPM) gathers nine of the submitted contributions to the 3 International Conference on Coastal Conservation and Management in the Atlantic and Mediterranean (ICCCM10), held at the Estoril, Portugal, in April 2010. The conference was attended by 800 participants from 24 countries, providing an expanded forum for scientists, engineers, planners and managers to discuss recent and new advances in scientific, technical, and socio-economic understanding of environmental issues related to coastal processes. The articles in this issue stress the use of GIS and online information from web portals as innovative tools for management of the coastal zone. Numerical modeling applications are used to assess water quality and coastal vulnerability. Souto et al. examine the benefits of compiling information on local and regional maritime-fluvial cultural heritage using Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and in-depth interviews with local stakeholders, to create a “Patrimonial” Geographic Information System (GIS) accessible by the targeted coastal communities and the relevant political and social institutions. Mossbauer et al. investigate the effectiveness and efficiency of coastal management web portals, using indicators for the visiting quality, the volume and characteristics of the information flow and the associated costs. Regarding water quality, Schernewski et al. propose a valuable tool for spatial analysis and development of bathing water profiles combining experiments on the behaviour of Escherichia coli bacteria with a three-dimensional flow model. Bresciani et al. assess the temporal evolution and spatial variability of water quality in terms of chlorophyll-a focusing on the importance of remote sensing as a valid tool for long-term whole ecosystem studies concerning cyanobacteria blooms. Risk assessment and coastal vulnerability are approached by Janeiro et al. who present an integrated tool to support the decision making process at an oil spill event, focusing on the importance of exchanging information in real time for accurate reliable information systems. Neves et al. developed an integrated system to support decision-making for port and coastal engineering modelling, enabling the automatic generation of risk maps for navigation and Martins et al. model coastal vulnerability in a scenario of urban expansion, stressing the need to improve effective urban planning processes to ensure a correct balance between the geophysical resilience of coastal systems as a strategic asset for the regional and national economy. Performance analysis and validation of numerical simulations of the wave propagation between offshore and inshore were presented by Fortes et al., and Costa and TaveiraPinto analyse the most vulnerable areas of a seafront in terms of current velocities and littoral drift, to confirm the effectiveness of coastal protection structures. We wish to thank the authors and the reviewers for their valuable efforts, and the Editor for his support in producing this special issue. P. Sobral (*) IMAR – Institute for Marine Research, Faculty of Sciences & Technology, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Campus da Caparica, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal e-mail: psobral@fct.unl.pt

Advanced Experimenting on Wave Interaction with Low-Crested Breakwaters

Two-dimensional scaled physical tests were carried out in the Hydraulics Laboratory wave tank of the University of Porto in order to more accurately understand the effect of submerged breakwaters on wave-induced velocities and pressure fields. The slow-varying pressures acting normally on the slope were simultaneously measured with the flow-induced velocities at the surface, and an analysis of their distribution along the whole structure-on the front slopes, rear slopes and along the crown-was done as this information is considered potentially useful for hydraulic design. Different points on the breakwater model were considered and diverse wave conditions were tested, allowing study of the dependency of pressures/velocities on model characteristics. Maximum, minimum and mean phase-averaged values of these variables were calculated, allowing the detection of potentially sensitive areas in terms of pressure and velocities at the surface. A spectral analysis of these physical variables was also perfomed in order to check the results obtained with the regular wave tests.