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Marine and coastal environments are under pressure from increasingly violent weather events, which continue to escalate in frequency and force. At the same time, coastal cities, ports and marine infrastructures are growing in scale and numbers. All this combined with the impact of climate change puts pressure on the natural environment, and solutions to these issues must be flexible and adapted to work in harmony with nature – not against it.
 
Work with nature from start to finish
Coastal environments are transient, continuously reshaped by the natural forces of waves, tides and surges. To be sustainable, coastal developments must be designed and implemented with a clear understanding and respect for local natural physical and biological processes. This is also the DHI way. We work with clients in the public and private sectors such as governments, insurance, real estate and shipping, to protect shorelines, support coastal development and safeguard ecosystems with nature-based solutions.
 
Gain effective solutions for complex environments
Our solutions, technologies and data help our clients transform model results into sustainable engineering solutions designed to cope with future climate and development needs.

Marine infrastructure

There is increasing political and public focus on the impact major marine infrastructure projects such as bridges, artificial islands and tunnels can have on local ecosystems. DHI provides solutions for all aspects of the infrastructure lifecycle from design, construction and operations to ensure that the new structures work with nature, not against it. We help ensure that the infrastructure complies with strict environmental legislation and can cope with even the harshest environmental conditions.
 By harmonising marine infrastructure with nature, DHI helps clients find the right mix of artificial coastal elements such as beaches, headlands, cliffs and lagoon environments to support the protection of life below water.

Coastal development

Safeguarding against coastal flooding and adapting to climate change has never been more important. By implementing sustainable mitigation measures, it is possible to achieve cost-efficient and resilient design and development of new land, islands and waterfront projects while protecting the surrounding environment. 

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The ÆGIR data portal helps communicate findings from marine and land assessments and supports operational planning for the world’s longest immersed tunnel
 
The Fehmarnbelt tunnel is one of Denmark’s largest infrastructure projects and the world’s longest immersed tunnel connecting Fehmarn, Germany to Lolland in Denmark. Now under construction both on land and at sea in Danish and German waters, the Fehmarnbelt tunnel will significantly reduce travel time and strengthen links between Scandinavia and Central Europe upon completion in 2029. Femern A/S has been tasked by the Danish Ministry of Transport to undertake the planning, construction and operation of the 18 km long tunnel. There is a need to comply with environmental obligations, ensure work is carried out sustainably and communicate environmental monitoring results to authorities. A data portal is helping to facilitate interaction among stakeholders and provide a transparent overview of environmental data related to the tunnel construction.
 
Challenge
 
Respect for nature and the environment is paramount in the construction and eventual operation of the Fehmarnbelt tunnel. As the project is cross-border in nature, Femern A/S has to ensure that German, Danish and European environmental legislations are taken into account.
 
To ensure full transparency in project operations, Femern A/S needed a platform to synchronise, communicate and publicly report various monitoring data acquired from environmental surveys and assessments. The platform should serve as a repository for environmental data that can be easily understood by academics, authorities as well as the general public. Previously, Femern A/S had a simple data viewer in place, but the lack of interactive features made it difficult for stakeholders to visualise the available data.
 
Solution
 
Environmental impacts of large-scale projects can be mitigated through careful planning and implementation of construction work. And access to high-quality, accurate environmental data is crucial.
 
For more than 10 years, the DHI team has been providing support to the Fehmarnbelt tunnel project. As the consortium leader of the Fehmarnbelt Environmental Monitoring and Consultancy (FEMO), DHI and partners have designed and carried out environmental impact assessments related to nature and water environments within the planned construction area. Some of these tasks include marine monitoring, sediment spill supervision and surveys, modelling and investigations related to hydrography, marine benthic flora and fauna, birds, marine mammals, coast and seabed conditions to ensure compliance with limits set by the authorities.
 
Femern A/S needed to make the above environmental data more accessible for all stakeholders. To fulfil this need, DHI developed the data portal ÆGIR to help Femern A/S publicly communicate, share and visualise the monitoring data and reports accompanying the environmental assessments. The data portal displays key environmental data, including:
 

Monitoring data: such as data from flora, fauna and water surveys, marine birds and mammals monitoring, as well as sedimentation and metocean measurements
Live data: for example, near real-time data from DHI’s extensive buoy system that measures hydrodynamic parameters, oxygen, temperature, turbidity, etc. throughout the Fehmarnbelt project area
Conditional requirements: for instance, project-related sediment spill and airborne noise


Kingfisher Wetlands by Gardens by the Bay in Singapore

A study in Singapore on the potential for carbon capture in urban mangrove wetlands 
 
Gardens by the Bay is an iconic horticultural attraction set in the heart of Singapore’s downtown. A horticultural treasure trove, it is home to a diverse collection of over 1.5 million plants hailing from almost every continent. In 2021, Gardens by the Bay developed the area now known as Kingfisher Wetlands into a central urban wetland with enhanced microhabitats to encourage biodiversity, in turn enriching the visitor experience with a charming landscape and better connectivity to the rest of the Gardens. Beyond aesthetics, the project is also inspiring research into the question: can urban mangrove wetlands help us in our fight against climate change?
 
Challenge
 
At Kingfisher Wetlands, beautiful water cascades and streamlets are offering microhabitats for biodiversity to flourish. From the Wildlife Lookout, nature enthusiasts are sighting migratory birds and other animals bustling in the surroundings. Rare mangrove species are putting down roots in their new home while providing a host of ecosystem services. This freshwater wetland is a nature sanctuary right in the heart of the city.
 
Previously, the Lotus Pond in the area was isolated from the rest of the lake system in the Gardens, which included the nearby Kingfisher Lake. Gardens by the Bay wanted to encourage more visitor traffic as the site was physically and visually isolated from the surrounding landscape. The challenge was how to make the site more inviting for visitors while also serving the higher purpose of supporting national sustainability efforts.
 
Initially, the intention was to improve the aesthetics while enhancing habitats for biodiversity, since it was already a popular bird-watching spot. At the same time, Gardens by the Bay wanted to improve water circulation and aeration in the water bodies for biodiversity to thrive. Gardens by the Bay, in consultation with DHI scientists, put forward the idea of developing part of the area into an urban mangrove wetland. This would be the perfect opportunity for Gardens by the Bay to not only enhance habitats and bring people closer to nature but also testbed climate solutions.

Earth observation technology helps protect blue carbon ecosystems

National mapping of submerged aquatic vegetation in the shallow Swedish coast using satellite imagery
 
Submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) such as kelp forests, eelgrass meadows and rockweed beds are some of the most productive ecosystems on Earth, playing a critical role in maintaining the health and function of aquatic ecosystems. Recent evidence suggests that SAV is one of the most efficient ecosystems when it comes to blue carbon capture and long-term storage. In the European Union, monitoring and assessments of the status of marine waters are key components of the Habitat Directive (HD), the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), and SAV health is an indicator of a healthy marine ecosystem. A satellite mapping tool is making it easier for Swedish authorities to map, monitor and evaluate changes in coastal vegetation and biotopes. This contributes to Sweden’s efforts to protect the marine environment and helps the country comply with national and international monitoring and reporting requirements.
 
Challenge
 
Up-to-date knowledge of SAV abundance and growth is critical to assess the impacts of management and conservation efforts, monitor overall marine health, evaluate the success of blue carbon strategies and aid in the construction of blue carbon budgets.
 
However, the highly fragmented nature of SAV in time (due to seasonal changes) and place (as SAV is organised into many heterogeneous patches of individual communities in rather shallow areas) makes monitoring and mapping a challenging, time-consuming and labour-intensive task.
 
In Sweden, environmental monitoring of the spatial distribution of SAV was lacking due to the challenges of using traditional small-scale methods for large-scale monitoring. Traditional methods such as field-based observations come with limitations such as small coverage areas, high costs and unsystematic data collection, making it difficult to map SAV consistently and comprehensively. As a result, Swedish authorities were limited in their ability to fully understand the intricacies of underwater coastal communities and their evolution over time.
 
Solution
 
Building on a robust and scalable approach, and in collaboration with Swedish regional and national authorities, the DHI team developed an SAV monitoring tool to monitor the extent and dynamics of SAV at scale for Sweden in a cost-efficient and timely manner. The project included the entire shallow coastal zone of Sweden, an area covering almost 50,000 km2. The cloud-based web platform allows non-EO specialists to apply advanced machine learning algorithms and the latest earth observation data to conduct scalable and detailed SAV classification on demand.
 
The team first combined Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite imagery, novel machine learning techniques and advanced data processing to create the first spatial overview of the distribution of SAV at a national scale in Sweden. A training dataset constructed with more than 30,000 manually labelled polygons was used to build the classification model, with which more than 3,800 km2 of underwater habitats of the entire shallow coastal zone of Sweden was mapped.
 
With this novel tool, authorities can now execute the entire mapping process in a few clicks – from the selection of suitable imagery to the final classification – just by interactively adding relevant training data. The user-friendly platform enables SAV mapping to be conducted on demand to ensure that data quality and update frequency meets the needs of Swedish authorities.
 
The project outcome and methodologies are further described in the following peer-reviewed article: Huber, Silvia. et al. (2021), Novel approach to large-scale monitoring of submerged aquatic vegetation: A nationwide example from Sweden. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management.

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