BARREEF Baseline Monitoring: A nature-based solution to Coastal protection and Biodiversity conservation.
Supervisor: Jon C. Svendsen (Technical University, Denmark)
Climate change poses a significant challenge worldwide, due to rising sea levels and powerful storms. As a lowland country with an extensive coastline, Denmark faces the risk of coastal erosion and degradation of environmental conditions in most coastal areas. Rocky reefs in Denmark’s shallow waters have diminished due to historical seabed stone and boulder extraction. Consequently, valuable marine habitats are dwindling, heightening shoreline vulnerability. Currently, coastal protection often employs beach nourishment, extracting offshore sand to replenish eroding coasts. While this practice restores the coastline, it causes considerable disruption to benthic ecosystems. The identification of effective and sustainable intervention methods to mitigate and safeguard against present and future hazards constitutes an urgent and significant challenge. In response to these challenges, the BARREEF project proposes the construction of a barrier reef composed of boulders, near the coast of Samsø, as a nature-based solution (NBS). This collaborative endeavor unites partners, stakeholders, and authorities, working together to enhance coastal resilience and marine biodiversity in the face of climate change. In this thesis, underwater cameras were deployed to conduct baseline surveillance of the marine fauna at the proposed project location. Engineering models were employed to plan and design the submerged breakwater, and to anticipate coastal sediment accumulation and erosion patterns. The resulting data indicates that the barrier reef would provide natural coastal protection with minimal erosion, and create opportunities for diverse marine life to colonise and thrive, contributing to the overall biodiversity and ecological richness of the region.