25 Jan 2024 LNS Coastal Engineering Series: Course No. 2 BERM BREAKWATERS: Design and Construction By Prof. Jentsje W. van der Meer & Mr. Sigurdur Sigurdarson

LNS Coastal Engineering Series: Course No. 2

25 Jan 2024 (2:30-5:30 p.m. ) ( Hong Kong Time)

BERM BREAKWATERS: Design and Construction By Prof. Jentsje W. van der Meer

                                                                           &

                                                Mr. Sigurdur Sigurdarson

INTRODUCTION

The berm breakwater concept was “reinvented” in the eighties to provide wave protection for an airport runway extension into the sea in Unalaska, Alaska. The concept was later applied for the design of the breakwater at Keflavik, Iceland in 1983. Since then, many berm breakwaters have been built in Iceland and the rest of the World. The first berm breakwater in Hong Kong is at Hei Ling Chau, completed in 1999.

The primary advantage of the berm breakwater is that the required armour stones are smaller in size than those in a conventional rubble mound breakwater. Hence, the berm breakwater can be constructed with commonly available heavy construction equipment and with armour stones from local quarry sites at a cheaper cost. Moreover, the berm breakwater design allows waves to reshape the the berm to some extent and may have large resiliency against overload conditions. Compared with conventional rubble mound breakwaters, berm breakwaters have less overtopping rates, an attractive adaptive feature for Climate-resilience.

Manual and guidelines for the berm breakwater were first published in 2003 by Working Group 40 of the Maritime Navigation Commission of the International Navigation Association (PIANC, 2003). Since then, more research on berm breakwaters have been carried out to overcome the limitations of PIANC, 2003.

The scientific experience of Professor Jentsje van der Meer and the practical experience of Mr Sigurdur Sigurdarson in the design and construction of over thirty berm breakwaters all over the World was put together in a book published in 2017. It was written for practising coastal engineers with a scientific background which is also interesting to hydraulic modellers and researchers.

This web-based Course on berm breakwaters provides a great opportunity of the two internationally renowned coastal engineering consultants to address the contents of their above book with further experience since 2017 to an audience of coastal engineers and researchers in Hong Kong and beyond.

For more details, please send an email to event@lns.com.hk