Editorial Free

Welcome to this double issue, which comprises five papers that have been extended from among the very best presentations to the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) “Coasts, Maritime Structures and Breakwaters” 2023 conference, together with three further full papers which have reached publication via. the open submission route. I have strong sense that these papers align particularly well with our journal’s traditional – and never more essential – purpose of communicating advances that can assist our profession in meaningful ways. We are equally delighted to present each of these nine papers, and will introduce them in the following two sub-sections.

The ICE first organised and ran a conference in the area of breakwaters 40 years ago. Since then, this meeting has become the “ICE Coasts, Maritime Structures and Breakwaters” conference, often known affectionately (albeit slightly inaccurately) as simply “the Breakwaters Conference”. In its 2023 realisation in Portsmouth, it was attended by over 300 people, drawn almost equally from industry and academic sectors. The organisers and sponsors see this space for sharing of ideas and experience within the sector, across the technology readiness levels (TRLs), as a unique selling point of this conference. Thus, this conference’s content aligns especially well with the subject focus and communications mission of this journal, and we are delighted to have been able to devote (effectively) an Issue to sharing onwards some of the best, most impactful piece of work presented at the conference.

The 2023 conference saw nearly 100 presentations made over three days. The Proceedings are now published (Burgess, 2024). A reminder that these Proceedings not only publish the conference-format papers, but include summaries of the question-and-answer discussion session on each paper – a highly unusual feature which the organisers continue to believe adds significant value to the communications.

After the event, your Editor polled the Organising Committee and International Steering Group on what had – in their view – been the most impactful presentations. From among a large number of nominations (the overall quality of the conference was – as always – extremely high) we followed up with a smaller number of authors to explore their willingness to extend their conference paper into a somewhat deeper and/or broader version suitable for this journal. I am delighted that these authors rose to the challenge, giving us a set of papers which are 100% from the practise. I also recognise that for authors who are not in academic roles, the activity of paper-writing is not a core activity for which time is formally or informally allocated. I am therefore especially grateful to these authors who have carved time from their private and family time too. I would like to add a similar note of gratitude to the expert reviewers who have supported this process to bring these papers to publication. Again, many of you are in the private sector and will have given up precious personal time to support the journal. Our very warmest thanks to you all!

Our first paper is Noli et al. (2024), entitled “Combining vertical and sloping structures in marinas: roundheads and perforated quay walls”. Here, the team at Italian specialists MODIMAR srl., describe two recent, completed Italian projects in which vertical wall heads for rubble mounds have been designed and constructed in place of conventional sloping roundheads. These have resulted in improvements not only to stability but particularly in safety of navigation into and out of those harbours. The Organising Committee recognised this as a “highly novel” contribution whose value is all the greater for the on-going monitoring of the performance of these completed structures.

Our second paper is Lauridsen et al. (2024), “New Cubipod® armoured breakwater in Hanstholm, design and construction”. This is a Danish – Spanish collaboration, with the author group led by Henning Lauridsen of COWI A/S, Denmark, together with COWI colleagues, Cubipod® and Danish contractor Per Aarsleff A/S. Readers will find a detailed description of this large structure at an exposed location on the Danish west coast. We see the innovative approaches and solutions developed during its delivery, including detailed physical modelling, before learning about its construction. The conference Organising Committee nominations said things like “big, important” – I hope that your, the reader, agree.

Next comes Pearce et al. (2024) “Improving our understanding of bi-modal seas, shingle beach response and flood risk at Eastoke, Hayling Island, UK”. It was the topicality of Andy and his coauthors’ work – its focus on rapidly-emerging climate change impacts, with UK focus – that attracted our nominators. Once again, we see notable novelty and innovation arising from author teams which drawn upon complimentary expertise sets – here, bringing together Coastal Partners (responsible for the specific coast – its management, environment and engineering interventions) and the specialist consultancy expertise of HR Wallingford.

Our fourth paper curated from the conference is Tryggvadóttir et al. (2024) “Flood Risk and Overtopping Assessment for an Exposed Coastal Road”. The conference paper and lead author Bryndís’ presentation attracted attention for a particularly strong narrative on a very interesting project in a highly unusual setting. The subject is a fast-eroding beach on Iceland’s south coast, exposed to extratropical cyclones. The beach itself is a relatively recent feature arising from a volcanic event just over 100 years ago. The paper here is led by the Coastal Department of the Icelandic Road and Coastal Administration, in collaboration with University of Iceland.

Completing the set of our in-focus papers is O’Connell et al. (2024) “Protecting Intertidal Habitats: A Successful Engineering Solution”. This contribution is an exemplar of the way in which the boundaries of our sector’s expertise are continuously and positively pushed, and how interdisciplinary approaches emerge. The challenge was the construction of a jetty spanning an especially sensitive inter-tidal habitat. The construction threatened the natural seawater supply to a rare seaweed. In response, this project designed and implemented novel passive structures to ensure that the habitat was able to continue to thrive. Our nominators acknowledged the nature of the team with “great mix of authors” – five authors from three organisations (with one author seconded to a fourth). The lead author is from RPS Energy and currently seconded to Health, Safety and Environment, NNB Generation Company (HPC) Limited. The coauthors bring the expertise of Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture, Science (Cefas) and from a marine environment expert at Sizewell C Ltd. Thank you Kevin and coauthors for sharing this unique, fascinating and beautifully illustrated story with our journal.

Although we have focused the Editorial thus far on the ‘Breakwaters” papers, we have also continued to progress manuscripts submitted to us via. the always-open routes, and we are delighted to present here the four that have most recently completed their peer-review and production processes.

Magda (2024) “Minikin's equation mistake – a mystic art of systems of measuring units” is a highly distinctive contribution. Not only does Magda’s painstaking research and new work close-out a long-running source of possible confusion, it also serves as an ever-timely reminder to our community of the extreme importance of rigour in the use of, and reporting of units in our work. This work has clearly been a ‘labour of love’ for which our community will owe a debt of gratitude to the author!

The penultimate paper in this double issue is Li et al. (2024) “Geospatial Analysis of Scour Development Post-protection in Offshore Wind Farm”. This work has arisen from a fruitful collaboration between a utility (PowerChina Huadong Engineering (Shenzhen) Corporation Ltd) and two universities (Zhejiang University of Technology and Tianjin Chengjian University). This paper is a valuable field study which is timely and of potentially great impact given China’s burgeoning offshore wind sector (with over 30 GW installed capacity) and parallel, rapid developments elsewhere, including in UK waters (>15 GW installed capacity).

We close this double issue (and our 2024 volume 177) with Dokhani et al. (2024) “The influence of toe geometry on toe armour stability for conventional rubble mound breakwaters”. This area of study has seen a relative paucity of previous studies, so this contribution is especially welcome.

As we move from 2024 to 2025, the new year will usher in a shortened name for our journal. We have had an ongoing concern that the “proceedings of” in our journal’s name has the potential to suggest that content is conference papers rather than fully-fledged, rigorously peer-reviewed journal articles. The Panel and the Publisher have agreed that the time is right to shorten our name to a clean and simple ‘Maritime Engineering’. While there is some sadness at the break with the past, the journal’s mission of supporting the profession via. the promulgation of latest best practise and in new research that can contribute to new areas of development remains fully unchanged. We hope that you will continue to value our efforts, and encourage colleagues to take their work to the wider readership of peers by sharing their work with us. Note too that although the full-length journal article remains the principal format, we very much also welcome contributions in our “Briefing Note” format (1500 words) which can be an ideal way to (e.g.) share updates on a recently-completed project. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with the journal office, or me directly, if you would like to know more about this route to publication in Maritime Engineering.

Finally, I’d like to thank, most warmly, all those who have contributed to the fine output of our journal through the year: the authors; the reviewers; our Panel, and most of all, my Co-Chairs Facheng and Tiago. This has been the first full year with our new publisher. Change is never easy, but my Co-Chairs and I are most grateful to the Team at ICE Publishing – Jess, Becky, Kirsten and Dhanashree – for their guidance, support and patience.