Stay ahead of the wave: shaping solutions for coastal and marine challenges

The Coasts, Marine Structures and Breakwaters conference started in 1983, following a series of breakwater failures in the late 1970s.

The aim was to bring together professionals to learn from such failures and evolve to meet the challenges we face today and in the future. Four decades later, we are still learning.

It’s why I’m pleased to share that the conference will be back for its 13th instalment next year – this time, in Edinburgh.

At the last one, in 2023, we saw 350 coastal engineers and scientists – drawn from asset owners, consultants, contractors and academics across 40 different countries – come together for three days of technical knowledge sharing, networking and in-depth discussions.

We’re hoping to see new and familiar faces next year at what is the sector's best opportunity to put our heads together and help solve some of the great challenges we’re facing.

Learning from the past to prepare for the future

We mustn’t forget those early failures, and especially what they taught us about the robustness and resilience that maritime structures must have.

This need has only heightened as we face more uncertain and extreme weather conditions.

We’re seeing more storms and extremely warm summers (such as this one), all of which impact our coasts and the resilience of the assets that help us manage the associated risks.

Marine environments are at the forefront of climate change. The critical, yet ageing, infrastructure protecting us requires innovative solutions to continue to deliver, or new approaches to adapt and change how we live and work by the sea.

Moving away from traditional approaches

Coastal management and how we move away from the traditional hard engineering approaches is a hot topic. It’s very much an evolving area, but this is an essential debate that will continue to feature next year.

As we continue to develop improved and new ways of building structures, this presents us with new challenges too.

We continually need to extend our capabilities to assess wave overtopping on increasingly complex structures.

New and fascinating ideas for armour units also need more comparative studies of loads and their structural responses to help inform our decisions.

This conference has always been at the forefront of bringing research in such areas to the attention of practitioners, and that will certainly remain the case in 2027.

A mission to innovate

‘Breakwaters’ also shows us that we don't just live by codes and standards – we innovate.

From building a flat-pack wharf in Antarctica and 3D printing in the Mediterranean to the use of natural wetlands in North America – 2023 was full of examples.

In 2027, I suspect we’ll hear more about innovative, low-carbon materials and construction approaches that projects have been employing.

Now, more than ever, there’s a wide range of stakeholders involved in coastal engineering projects, which we have seen mirrored by those attending and presenting at this conference.

This reflects the broader skills we need to tackle complex issues and turn theories into real solutions, regularly bringing new ideas from elsewhere into this industry.

How is AI changing the industry?

With new techniques we are getting more and more data collected on a whole range of parameters, including waves and storm sequencing, bimodal conditions, physical changes to the seabed and our shorelines.

We're going to need new and efficient processing methods to understand what the data is telling us.

AI and machine learning have grown exponentially since we last met and can support these needs, so I look forward to hearing how the extent to which colleagues are already using it.

These tools are also now being employed by designers and asset owners. But is it having a direct impact on projects yet and what do we think about that?

Working with nature

In 2023, speakers explored ways to make coastal structures more durable and effective while also creating habitats that can benefit local ecosystems.

We had presentations on projects testing different types of blocks, tiles and other features designed to help plants and animals establish themselves on and within coastal structures.

In 2027, I’m looking forward to hearing how this has advanced and how nature-positive solutions are being embedded into projects to support wider benefits for communities and the planet.

Where theory meets practice: connecting knowledge and experience

Since it began, the Breakwaters conference has grown and broadened beyond recognition – the topics covered and the attendees are far more diverse.

Many of us attending are engineers and scientists, but we have seen sizeable increases in numbers of those who bring different environmental, ecological, public engagement, project management, planning and policy skill sets, too.

We’ve done many things over the past 40 years, but what we've really tried to excel at is sharing good practice and working on improving our techniques and our understanding of a changing environment.

Sharing that knowledge is a fundamental part of this conference. We even capture the always informative, and often vigorous, discussion that takes place at the end of each session and include this in the published proceedings.

That’s why spaces like this conference matter. We need the time and place to come together, share ideas and connect with those who may help us find the solutions.

So, I want to encourage everyone reading this to consider presenting a paper. The call for abstract closes soon, so don’t miss your chance to become part of our legacy.

I look forward to reading them!

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