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Ten partner institutes from the academic world, the Flemish government and the private sector have carried out research on coastal processes over a period of four years. They share their results of the CREST project via nine take home messages that are further refined in an extensive list of research results.

 

TAKE HOME MESSAGES

  1. Coping with long-term climate change involves many uncertainties. Several climate scenarios have been updated to support policies.
  2. Over the past thirty years, it appears that a net natural supply of sediment from the sea to the Belgian west and east coasts has taken place, which has contributed to the soft coastal defence.
  3. The technology to follow evolutions in beach morphology is available.
  4. Providing sufficient sand on the beaches not only strengthens the beach itself, but also contributes to strengthening the dunes.
  5. After a storm, our beaches recover at least partially, and this within a period of barely a few months.
  6. Taking fundamental processes better into account is a good basis for understanding and simulating the patterns of coastal sediment transport.
  7. The FLIAT model developed under CREST provides a solid basis for hinterland flood risk calculations.
  8. Wider beaches reduce the impact of waves on the dikes.
  9. Physical tests in the test facilities of Ghent University, Flanders Hydraulics and Deltares have largely contributed to estimating the impact of waves on hard structures.

The output of the CREST project is divided into four themes. For an extensive list of research results, please click here (only available in English).

THEME 1: Climate change including morphological evolution on long time scale (decades) for the Belgian coast as a whole read more
THEME 2: Morphodynamics on time scale of days (storms) to years (lifetime of nourishments) for the two pilot areas Mariakerke and Koksijde read more
THEME 3: Physical processes and innovation in modelling read more
THEME 4: Prediction of wave impact (overtopping and loads) on the dike during storms read more

Download here the full list of research results. DOWNLOAD


The CREST project is part of the Strategic Basic Research (SBO) programme of the Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship and runs from 1 November 2015 to 31 October 2019.

Find out more on this website about the project, the partners involved and the intended results.