Wave, Agitation and Overtopping Forecast System Applied to the Construction of Aberdeen Harbour Expansion

This study presents the assembly of an advanced climate forecast aid system for harbour construction. The objective is to provide a coherent harbour climate assessment within an integrated system, for a daily on-site construction management, organization and schedule. The work is based on a practical concatenation of: a) available sources of met-ocean data (forecast), with b) numerical tools for wave propagation, agitation and interaction with harbour structures. The study proposes the methodological steps that should be taken in order to create an efficient construction aid-system, based on a 4-day to 15-day wave, wind and sea level data predictions. Important improvements in the daily organisation of the construction tasks, the increase of safety of human work over highly energetic sea-states exposed breakwaters, and the optimization of machinery movement / navigability, have been achieved. As an example, the system has been successfully validated and implemented on-site during the recent construction of Aberdeen (Scotland) harbour expansion.