Research programme
Sediment Transport in Fluvial, Estuarine and Coastal environment
Location
Greece
Funding
European Framework Programme 7 - Marie Curie Initial Training Networks (ITN) - EUR 3.7 million
Project period
2013 - 2017 (48 months)
Sediment transport in the fluvial, estuarine and coastal environment causes significant morphological changes and results in the amplification of floods, storm surges and other inundation hazards. This increases considerably the risk of structural failure, disruption of network function (water, energy), and the destruction of ecosystems, natural resources, property and human life.
Climate change is expected to increase the impact of sediment transport, hastening the need to improve knowledge and train future engineers in this field. We propose creating a network for the training of researchers in all application areas of sediment transport. The network comprises six academic and four industrial partners and provides an elaborate and interdisciplinary training-through-research programme to twelve early stage and four experienced researchers. It includes a comprehensive academic programme, secondment at industrial partners, workshops, winter- and summer schools, thematic conferences, production of guidelines and complementary activities.
The research focuses on 1) modelling and algorithm development for sediment transport in river and coastal flows, and for inland and offshore turbidity currents or debris flows, and 2) experiments and simulations of sediment transport in river and coastal flows, and sediment-laden density underflows in reservoirs and submarine canyons.
The experiments will allow for crucial phenomenological advances in the conceptual models upon which simulation tools are built. The latter, compatible with high performance computing, will be explored jointly by academic and industrial partners in real engineering applications during and after the duration of the project. This network is structured to help the coordination of research and educational activities in sediment transport at a European level and increase European competitiveness in this important field of science and technology.
Partners
University of Patras (Greece)
Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium)
University of Cyprus (Cyprus)
Instituto Superior Técnico (Portugal)
Università degli Studi di Trieste (Italy)
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland)
Laboratόrio Nacional de Engenharia Civil (Portugal)
Fugro GeoConsulting (Belgium)
Idrostudi Srl (Italy)
Stucky Ltd (Switzerland)
Website: http://www.seditrans.civil.upatras.gr/
Fugro Contact: Benoit Spinewine (BSpinewine@fugro.be)
