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Description
The project “COAST4US – Application of the COAST tool to the Portuguese coast” is promoted by R5e Consulting Engineers in partnership with R5m Marine Solutions and the University of Aveiro, with the support of the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA).
It aims to develop a study about the economic potential of the application of the COAST tool – an innovative and unique software on the market able to perform cost-benefit analyses on coastal defence interventions – that allows a more efficient planning of the coastal interventions by the public entities. The tool results from a research line dedicated to technological innovations applied to public policies for the Ocean, in the field of coastal protection due to erosion phenomena and consequent adaptation to the effects of climate change.
This project aims also to foster economic growth, business development and increase the competitiveness of a Portuguese company in the field of Blue Growth.
The added values resulting from the application of this tool are of interest to the APA, which supports and highlights its relevance and importance for the country regarding the management and protection of coastal areas. To that extend, the main objective of this project is to apply the COAST software to the main risk zones of the Portuguese west coast, identified by the APA based on the historical data and monitoring resulting from the COSMO program: Aveiro, Figueira da Foz e Costa da Caparica.
To achieve these objectives, the below actions are defined:
- Collection and pre-processing of the information, which includes the physical characterization and economic evaluation of the study area and the identification of the costs of the coastal defence interventions (University of Aveiro);
- COAST implementation, including the definition of possible intervention scenarios, the physical modelling of the scenarios and the economic feasibility of the interventions, in terms of cost-benefit relationship (R5 Marine Solutions);