DHI: Report on Coastal Erosion Mitigation Guidelines Released

The World Association for Waterborne Transport Infrastructure (PIANC) recently released Report no. 123 – 2014 entitled ‘Countries in Transition: Coastal Erosion Mitigation Guidelines’.

Karsten Mangor, one of the DHI experts, was the Chairman of the International Co-operation Commission Working Group (CoCom) Working Group 2 responsible for these guidelines.

PIANC’s CoCom Working Group 2 focused on:

– the various coastal erosion problems that Countries in Transition (CiTs) have previously faced and may face in the future;

– possible solutions to coastal erosion problems, illustrated by using examples from real cases.

CiTs are defined as countries that have little or no experience with coastal management. This is often due to inadequate organisation and facilities. Although CiTs are not the same as developing countries, developing countries are often classified as CiTs. Developed countries, in which technical conflicts may exist between coastal development and coastal erosion, can also be categorized as CiTs.

In CiTs, the problems related to mitigating erosion are usually worse due to a lack of coastal management capabilities, legislation and administration. The guidelines sought to address this by:

– describing coastal processes;

– identifying typical coastal erosion problems;

– identifying best practices in coastal investigations;

– proposing practical decision methodology for shoreline stabilization methods.