Kerala - Kollam   

Wave directional buoy to help construction

Staff Reporter

It will help to design structures in coastal areas

KOLLAM: In a move to make its coastal construction activities more scientific, the Harbour Engineering Department is buying a wave directional buoy (WDB) from Germany.

P.I. Sheik Pareeth, Chief Engineer of the department, told The Hindu here on Tuesday that the buoy would be arriving in two months.

With it, the department could accurately compute the natural coastal processes of the area where construction had to be carried out. The structures constructed included seawalls, bridges, wharfs, jetties, harbours and roads. With data from the buoy, the design for them in each coastal area could be meticulously planned.

Mr. Pareeth said that with such a design, the construction would be more durable and strong enough to withstand coastal processes peculiar to an area.

When it came to constructing coastal structures, the department had been depending on offshore data to understand the near-shore process. This was achieved by transforming the offshore data through a computer process. By acquiring the buoy, the department would be able to separately get a clear picture of offshore and near-shore data.

The buoy would be moored to the sea floor. Using electronic gadgets, it measured wave heights and directions, the time period between waves and sand movement. This helped in short- and long-term investigations to understand the natural coastal processes such as accretion and erosion in a more scientific manner. With the data, the cause of sea erosion could be understood and this could help to find a remedy to control or prevent erosion, Mr. Pareeth added.

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