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Coastbusters – Developing systems that work with nature
The impact of climate change along the coastal regions, with higher sea levels and more extreme weather events, is on the rise. The Coastbusters project brings a new look at traditional coastal defense methods and develops the systems that work with nature.
The pioneering program discovers new concepts, including using biogenic reefs for ecosystem-based flood defence. The purpose of the reefs is to induce natural accretion of sand, attenuate storm waves and reinforce the foreshore against coastal erosion, thus adding to coastal protection. These more ecologically sound solutions incorporate nature-inspired designs into coastal protection systems. As the initial three-year project concluded last year, the Coastbusters consortium members (DEME, ILVO,
eCoast, Sioen and Jan De Nul) presented the final project report, offering a perspective about future coastal management – backed up by several different studies in the field. Resilient coastal protection Sustainable and innovative approaches for a resilient coastal protection are crucial to safeguard environmental, economic and societal assets of the coast. In the past, sustainable coastal management approaches have emerged within the nature-based solutions (NBS) philosophy. In this context,
the application of ecosystem engineering species for achieving civil engineering objectives is not new. From a coastal protection point of view, these species need to have the ability to modify the local physical environment by their structures or activities to trap sediments and attenuate waves. An ecosystem-based coastal flood protection can only be brought into largescale practice as a regional solution, on condition that there is sufficient space present to accommodate the creation and development of (ad-
