Projects

Natural solutions are playing an increasingly important role in sustainable coastal management, but a sound scientifically based financing framework is still lacking. Coastbusters FINESSE wants to change this.

The partners in the Coastbusters project LANICE strive for sustainable systems to manage the Belgian coast. Within this scope, they investigate to what extent the sand mason worm can play a role in stabilising sediment and increasing biodiversity at the Belgian coast.

The partners in the Reefcovery project are developing various methods for the restoration of oyster reefs in the North Sea. These oyster reefs can then be used to arrive at a nature-inclusive design for infrastructure at sea and along the coast.

The aim of the three-year WETCOAST project is to gain more insight into carbon storage in salt marshes and mangroves. In this way, the partners are taking an important step towards natural solutions that can be financed with carbon credits.

To limit global warming, active research is being conducted into ways to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The Blue Alkalinity project examines the possibility of storing CO2 from the air in the sea by increasing the alkalinity of the seawater.

The partners in the BERNARDO project examine the potential of marine carbon for a sustainable blue economy. Within this scope, they draw up a comprehensive carbon budget for the Belgian North Sea for the very first time.

Natural solutions are increasingly used to protect our coasts from the ferocity of the sea. However, a lot of sand needs to be extracted for such solutions, which affects the marine ecosystem. SUSANA aims to map both ecosystems and the effects they experience.

Billions of cubic metres are dredged every year to keep ports and rivers accessible. This material is usually considered a worthless waste product, but it can potentially play a role in the restoration of our eroded tidal zones and help improve our local ecosystem services. Bankbusters explores these aspects in detail.

The demand for more natural forms of coastal defence is ever-increasing. CASSANDRA responds to this demand and investigates what is still needed to create a living lab where nature-based solutions come together in an integrated way.

Soft coastal protection measures such as dune, beach or foreshore replenishments present specific challenges in terms of design and maintenance for governments, engineering firms, dredgers and the insurance industry.

This project will develop a toolbox for the assessment and integration of social and spatial risks of multifunctional marine infrastructure. The eventual goal is to maximise the success rate of complex marine infrastructure projects.