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Marine Civils by David Foxwell

Call for Change in Coastal Management

20 Mar 2008

Professor Kees d’Angremond, a leading consultant on coastal engineering, has called for major change in the way countries and corporations plan, execute and manage coastal development.

The effect of accelerated mega-project development on people and environments was at the heart of his closing keynote speech at PIANC-COPEDEC VII, the international coastal and port engineering conference.

At the start of his address, the consultant gave an overview of the world’s biggest and most ambitious mega-projects. He charted evolution in both size and technology from developments like the Suez and Panama Canals, through Lake Ijssel’s closure and reclamation in The Netherlands, Singapore’s Tuas and Changi reclamation projects, Hong Kong’s Chek Lap Kok island airport, culminating with residence and leisure based projects today in areas like the UAE (The Palm, The World), Oman (The Pearl), Bahrain and Qatar.

Prof d’Angremond focused on the effects these may be having on the natural world, noting that ever larger projects have ever greater and more widespread impact. However, he identified accelerated production times, rather than sheer size, as the main environmental issue.

'The Suez and Panama Canals, the Ijssel reclamation, the Delta Project, they were gigantic undertakings, far larger than the mega-projects of today, he said. 'But the Suez took 11 years to build. Including its initial failure, the Panama Canal took double that, at a cost of 27,500 lives. Ijssel took 40 years.'

However, slower execution times are actually better for the environment, he claimed. Although average mega-project scales are three to five times shorter nowadays, completion times are between one to three years on average, and this means the environmental effects are sometimes unclear until long after contractors and consultants have moved on.

Prof d’Angremond emphasised the danger of less time for evaluation of the possible effects of projects. Shorter time scales mean fewer engineers with less time observing how the environment is being affected. To offset this danger, he underscored the need for rapid response scenarios formulated in advance, money to be spent on more critical engineers on site, and more investment in post-construction monitoring and what he called an ‘after-care’ service for the environment.

PIANC-COPEDEC VII, hosted and organised by Dubai Municipality, took place 24-28 February 2008 and drew nearly 1,000 delegates from 66 countries.

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