Development of a harbour design toolbox: Opportunities for multidisciplinary rapid assessment in harbour development

A prototype harbour design toolbox has been developed, with a Graphical User Interface, incorporating simple model instruments to rapidly assess the impact of a harbour construction on a coastal environment, such as expected siltation rates and impact on the coastline evolution. The toolbox can be useful for different stakeholders, particularly in the early phases of a harbour development project, to explore order of magnitude impacts, relevant design parameters and dominant processes. This paper will set out the current status of the harbour design toolbox and investigate the benefits of use for specific stakeholders. The ambition is to further extend the harbour design toolbox towards an integral coastal design tool, facilitating the implementation of other type of interventions and linking to other disciplines such as marine ecology and navigation. It is intended that the integral coastal design tool will facilitate a multi-disciplinary approach to aid in the feasibility, design, construction or maintenance phase of coastal development project.