Welcome to the first issue of Maritime Engineering in 2025, which is also our first issue under the new title and a renewed editorial panel! As of this issue, “Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers” has been removed from the journal’s name — henceforth, the journal will be known simply as Maritime Engineering. This change signifies our continued commitment to delivering cutting-edge research that tackles the critical challenges in coastal and maritime engineering. We will be continuing our connection to the Institution of Civil Engineers and hope to publish many more Themed Issues in the future based on ICE conferences.
In this issue, our editorial panel has chosen to focus on advancements in coastal monitoring and structural assessment — a topic that resonates strongly with civil engineers confronting issues such as climate variability, aging infrastructure, and extreme marine events. As environmental changes and rising sea levels intensify coastal hazards, it is imperative that we continually refine our approaches to data acquisition, analysis, and interpretation (Cooper et al., 2021). This issue presents three groundbreaking contributions exemplifying advanced analytical techniques integrated into practical engineering solutions.
The first paper, Dhoop et al. (2025), tackles the longstanding issue of data distortion from wave buoys during wave breaking in shallow coastal waters. Such distortion often results in significant data loss during standard quality-control processes. The authors introduce an innovative two-stage reprocessing technique, recovering approximately 7.3% of storm wave data otherwise discarded. Retaining these additional data significantly impacts return period estimations of significant wave height, enhancing coastal hazard assessment reliability and strengthening flood and erosion risk management frameworks. This advancement notably deepens our understanding of nearshore wave dynamics.
The second contribution, Sachet et al. (2025), addresses challenges associated with non-destructive evaluation of aging coastal concrete infrastructure, such as piers, ports, and breakwaters. Traditional destructive testing methods are often impractical near sensitive structural elements. Therefore, the authors propose an integrated geophysical surveying approach combining Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR) and Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT), utilizing specialized flat electrodes. This combined method effectively identifies areas of advanced deterioration within heritage piers, successfully delineating structural interfaces despite the limitations of GPR in highly conductive, seawater-saturated fill materials. The consistency of the ERT and GPR results represents significant progress, positioning these comprehensive imaging solutions as efficient, economical, and sustainable methods for evaluating coastal concrete infrastructure.
In the third paper, James and Panchang (2025) examine rogue waves in UK coastal waters. It is important to note that rogue waves differ fundamentally from the extreme wave heights usually identified over long-time scales (Vanem et al., 2019). While rogue waves are defined by their exceptional heights relative to the surrounding sea state, conventional extreme value methods rely on peak-over-threshold or block maxima approaches. Drawing on a comprehensive seven-year dataset from 22 wave-measurement instruments, the authors use continuous wavelet transforms and phase-space analysis to scrutinize these events. Their work builds on the advanced data processing framework introduced in our first paper by Dhoop et al. (2025). Their findings indicate that basic wavelet analysis and Grassberger Procassia algorithm (GPA) are insufficient to predict rogue wave occurrences; however, the ratio of energy during rogue wave formation to the average background energy correlates strongly with the sea state's abnormality index. Moreover, the depth-to-wavelength ratio emerges as a more informative parameter than crest-to-trough correlation. These insights enhance our understanding of rogue wave dynamics and underscore their importance in marine structure design and safety assessments.
The research featured in this issue significantly improves capabilities for monitoring hazardous coastal phenomena, assessing structural integrity of aging infrastructure, and optimizing maintenance strategies under changing conditions. The innovative methods presented reinforce interdisciplinary collaboration as crucial for solving complex maritime engineering challenges.
We warmly invite readers to engage with these contributions and reflect upon their implications for coastal risk management and infrastructure protection. We take this chance to acknowledge our readers’ support and make a brief, yet highly deserved, mention to the dedication and high-quality editorial work made by Prof. Tom Bruce over the past years as a very valuable Editor-in-Chief.
