Projects

Expertise and experience of the organisation:

The main projects currently undertaken in the department, with relevance to sediment transport research, are the following:

• Sediment and Water Movement in Industrialised Estuarine Environments (SWAMIEE), supported by the CEC under the Training and Mobility of Researchers network (1997-2001). The project studied sediment transport processes in two European estuaries: the Gironde (France) and the Guadiana Estuary (Portugal).
• Inlet Dynamics Initiative: Algarve (INDIA), supported by the CEC under the Marine Sciences and Technology programme (1997-2000). The project studied a tidal inlet of the Ria Formosa barrier-island system, in order to develop conceptual models of inlet evolution. Fieldwork and modelling were aided by the development of video techniques for remote sensing. Dr Ciavola carried out in-situ measurements of waves and currents on the ebb-delta complex.
• Feed-backs of Estuarine Circulation and Transport of Sediments on Phytobenthos (F-ECTS), supported by the CEC under the Marine Sciences and Technology programme (1998-2001). The project studied the relationship between sediment transport and benthic communities and involved fieldwork in the Venice Lagoon (Italy), the Ria Formosa (Portugal), the Roskilde Fjord (Denmark).
• Prediction Of The Erosion of Cliffed Terrains (PROTECT), supported under the V Framework of the European Union (2001-on-going). The project studies the erosion of rocky cliff faces developing innovative geophysical techniques.
• Study of the evolution of lagoon and coastal lakes in the Mediterranean, supported with university funds (MURST ex-60%). The project (2001-on-going) studies coastal lakes in Puglia and Sicily to understand the Holocene evolution of the sedimentary systems.
• Video monitoring of littoral processes in support of coastal zone management (Coastview), supported by the CEC under the 5th Framework (2002-on-going). The project aims at identifying Coastal State Indicators which could be easily measured with the support of innovative video-techniques. The author contributes to the understanding of the mobility of nearshore bars and associated shoreline changes.