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Committee on Coastal and Maritime Hydraulics

Scope / Research Agenda / Committee Officers / Working Groups / Publications / Databases / Reports

Scope

Maritime Hydraulics covers all aspects of maritime, coastal and estuarine problems including coastal morphology, waves, tides, currents, sedimentation and pollution. The activity of the IAHR Maritime Committee is focused on six topics:

  • Study of environmental parameters such as waves, tides and currents through: Field data collection, analytical methods and numerical and physical modelling techniques. Special emphasis is given to achieve a better understanding of non-conventional parameters such as wave groups, bounded short and long waves, wave asymmetries, directional waves, etc. and their relevance to structural response.
  • Design of ports & harbours and their optimisation through physical and numerical modelling including design of fixed and floating structures.
  • Analysis of bed load and suspended load, cross-shore and longshore currents involved in sedimentation and bed evolution, erosion and deposition problems related to structures, and dredging.
  • Study of pollution problems including convection of pollutants by currents, residual drift, dispersion and diffusion.
  • Coastal and ecosystem management including the interaction of the coastal environment with coastal developments.
  • Study of consequences of sea level trends and impacts on coastal engineering.

Contacts with other organisations, such as the Coastal Engineering Research Council (CERC) of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Permanent International Association of Navigation Congresses (PIANC), the International Towing Tank Conference (ITTC), are well established.
The present effort is mainly focused on improving numerical and mathematical models of coastal processes through a better understanding of the associated complex physics. As well, there is the need for certain field data to validate these numerical models.
Many laboratories are now equipped with segmented wave generators that can simulate the multidirectional characteristics of natural sea states. Although the use of multidirectional waves provides a more accurate representation of wave interactions with structures, often resulting in more cost-effective and safer designs, there are limitations again in the lack of sufficient field data.
One of the priorities of the IAHR Maritime Hydraulics Committee is to form international Working Groups for standardising and validating analysis algorithms that can be used both in field and laboratory situations.

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Research Agenda

Remote sensing and exchange of field data: Future fields of investigation will revolve around remote sensing, including the launching of a new generation satellites. The exchange of data and the access to data banks have to be improved.

Interdisciplinary approach of ecology: Especially in the field of numerical tools, there is a need for closer ties between specialists in hydraulics and specialists in ecology; for example between physicists, biologists, chemists and ecologists.

Sea level rise: The expected rise in sea level and associated climate changes will most probably have severe consequences for coastal and estuarine management.

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Committee Officers

Leadership Team

Chair

Constatine Memos
Professor
School of Civil Engineering
National Technical University of Athens,
Athens, GREECE
Tel: +30-210-7722851
Fax +30 210 772 2853
e-mail:memos@hydro.ntua.gr


Vice Chair

Francisco Taveira Pinto
Assistant Professor
Hydraulics and Water Resources Institute
Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto
Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200-465, Porto, PORTUGAL
e-mail: fpinto@fe.up.pt


Members

Gary P. Mocke
Manager, Coastal Science & Engineering
Asia & Middle East (AME) Region
Worley Parsons Infrastructure & Environment
Muscat, Sultanate of Oman
Tel. +968 24473536
Fax: +968 244 83908
M: +968 998 58682
Email: gary.mocke@worleyparsons.com

Panayotis Prinos
Professor
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Hydraulics Lab., Dept. of Civil Engineering,
GR-54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
Tel: +30 2310 99 5689
Fax: +30 2310 99 5672
E-mail: prinosp@civil.auth.gr

E.h. V. Sundar
Professor
Department of Ocean Engineering,
I.I.T. Madras, Chennai 600 036, INDIA
Phone: +91 44 2257 4801/0/9
Fax: +91 44 2257 4802
email: vsundar@iitm.ac.in

Hitoshi Tanaka
Professor
Department of Civil Engineering
Tohoku University
Sendai, Japan
E-mail: tanaka@tsunami2.civil.tohoku.ac.jp

Damien Violeau
EDF R&D / LNHE
Ouvrage eau Environment
6 quai Watier, F-78400 Chatou, FRANCE
Tel: +33 1 3087 7831
Fax: +33 1 30 87 8086
E-mail: damien.violeau@edf.fr

Pengzhi Lin
Chang Jiang Scholars Professor
State Key Laboratory of Hydraulics and
 Mountain River Engineering
Sichuan University
24,South Committee 1,
Yihuan Road, Chengdu,Sichuan, 610065 P.R.China
Tel:+86-28-85403116
E-mail: cvelinpz@126.com

See-Whan Kang
Professor
Chonbuk National University, Korea
Jeonju-City, Jeonbuk,
561-756 South Korea
Tlf. +82-63-2702098
E-mail: swkang@kordi.re.kr

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Working Groups

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Publications
  • Proceeding of IAHR seminar on Multidirectional Waves and their Interaction with Structures. XXVII IAHR Congress, 1997, San Francisco, USA,
  • Int. Seminar of the IAHR Maritime Hydraulics Committee , Lausanne, Switzerland, Sept. 1-4, 1987 "Wave analysis and generation in laboratory basins", 459 pages. From Publication Sales and Distribution, National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0R6, Canada
  • Int. Symposium on Mathematical Modelling of Sediment Transport in the Coastal Zone, Copenhagen, Denmark, May 30-June 1, 1988. From Symposium Secretariat, Danish Hydraulic Institute, Agern Allé 5, DK-2970 Horsholm, Denmark. Telephone: (45)-4576-9555, fax (45)-4576-2567.

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REPORTS

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