Soluções bioreceptivas inovadoras para a resiliência e proteção dos estuários

The main objective of InVert is to design and test market-oriented, bioreceptive and eco-friendly, multifunctional, innovative solutions specifically conceived for estuaries, and use Digital Twins to understand their performance on different timescales. Estuaries are highly dynamic regions with strong temporal and spatial variability in their morpho-hydrodynamic patterns. This is the main reason why there is a lack of research about tools, products and structures based on NBS that can be used to improve the estuaries’ resilience. Specific solutions should be designed to improve the status of the transitional water regions in a multidisciplinary way (from dynamics to ecosystems), diminishing the estuaries’ vulnerability to present and future conditions. The effect of these solutions on short- and long-term timescales can only be evaluated with accurate virtual estuarine models, i.e. Digital Twins. To accomplish the main InVert objective, secondary objectives are proposed: (i) Assess and design innovative solutions to protect selected areas from erosion/deposition and high current velocities, allowing, at the same time, the connectivity within the estuarine environment and thus avoiding the occurrence of stagnant water. (ii) Test the effect on currents, residence time and particle transport of the installation of innovative structures. (iii) Develop physical models to complement the assessment of the effect of the proposed solutions based on the Digital Twins simulations in a controlled environment. (iv) Include in the Digital Twins environment high-resolution numerical CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) models to simulate the interaction of the water with selected solutions and understand the close-up hydrodynamics considering several scenarios of velocity, salinity (freshwater and oceanic water) and temperature on the average states of the estuarine region selected as study case. (v) Improve the already implemented Digital Twins (morpho-hydrodynamic numerical models) to simulate the estuarine behaviour and identify the areas that need additional protection. The proposed innovative solutions will be included in the models to study their behaviour for present and future scenarios under normal conditions, extreme events, artificial interventions and climate change effects. (vi) Include already developed lagrangian tools to understand the effect of the proposed solutions on the particle transport, evaluating the effect on the dynamics and the retention capacity of the areas to be identified in InVert. (vii) Comprehend the current acceptability of the proposed innovative solutions and promote dedicated activities to inclusively and effectively involve and engage both national and international multi-sectoral stakeholders and policy-makers, showing the necessity to consider this technology in the local, regional, national and international coastal management plans. (viii) Develop specifically designed tools for outreach and citizen-science activities to raise awareness and ensure the community’s empathy about the necessity of protecting, restoring and improving the conditions in estuarine regions.