Assessing coastal risk

Heavily urbanised coastal areas are increasingly exposed to the risk of extreme events such as storms. Improving knowledge of these phenomena in order to better predict their impacts is the objective of the MARLIT project coordinated by the AZTI Foundation and financed by the FEDER funds of the European Union within the framework of the Interreg POCTEFA programme.

In this context, the center Rivages Pro Tech SUEZ  which is a partner in the project, called on France Energies Marines for a campaign of measures to study waves and marine flooding on the Grande Plage de Biarritz in South of France. The stereoscopic camera system and associated know-how developed during the DIME project will be used to reconstruct the 3D wave field near the coastline. This experiment is being conducted in close collaboration with the City of Biarritz and the SIAME laboratory of the University of Pau et Pays de l’Adour. The first results obtained indicate a good match between stereoscopy and measurements from pressure sensors installed on the sea floor. The agreement between these two types of instrumentation offers promising perspectives for the observations of nearshore waves. A new data acquisition campaign is planned for this winter.

Photo credit: France Energies Marines