Deploying novel remote sensing solutions to increase the efficiency of dredging operations and coastal management at the port of Beira, Mozambique

There is strong evidence of Climate Change--induced increases in sea level, tidal range and extreme events, elevating the risk to coastal populations. Low-lying developing nations, such as Mozambique are particularly vulnerable to such events, due to a lack of monitoring systems to support planning and mitigation. This was exemplified by the arrival of Tropical Cyclone Idai in March 2019, which caused widespread devastation, particularly in the region surrounding Beira -- Mozambique's second largest international sea port.

This project will assess the potential for dramatically increasing the efficiency of maintenance dredging at the port of Beira in Mozambique and thereby reducing costs and carbon emissions associated with frequent maintenance dredging. The local community will benefit from improved flood risk and coastal erosion management.

Mozambique currently only has four continuous, long-term tide gauges, at Maputo, Inhambane, Beira and Pemba. These are used to produce tidal predictions for port authorities, local communities and the fishing industry. However, Mozambique has an extensive coastline and the dearth of information outside these four locations, presents safety issues for communities, infrastructure and commerce. Sea level and tidal information is particularly in demand where there are plans to extend and develop ports, such as Nacala, the sea terminal for the Northern Development Corridor rail link to Malawi.

The vision of the project is to change the paradigm of the dredging routine by providing a unique wide-area, near realtime, remotely sensed dataset comprising nearshore bathymetry, surface currents and wave statistics that will provide a sandbox in which the hydrographic office can better design and model unique dredging approaches that can work with the natural processes to create more self-sustaining optimised sediment transport pathways.

The solution proposed to be developed in the project has wide potential for adoption at not just Beira and other ports in Mozambique, but to many other ports globally