Field Monitoring of Ship Wave Action on Environmentally Friendly Bank Protection in a Confined Waterway

Abstract

The road toward a sustainable inland waterway network entails the installation of ecologically sound and technically effective bank protection. Heavy shipping traffic complicates the development of environmentally friendly bank protection on confined, nontidal waterways. Because in such conditions ship waves vary with ship design and operation, with topographic boundaries and locally changing hydraulic conditions, ship wave action is poorly understood. Therefore, a stand-alone field monitoring system was designed that accurately measures the impact on and response of environmentally friendly bank protection, consisting of off-bank timber piling and vegetation (reeds). Subsequently, the instrumentation was re-engineered and extended to a mobile version, enhancing the dynamic measurement possibilities. In this paper, the setup of both measurement systems is described, together with a detailed overview of the selected measurement instrumentation and good installation practices. The added value of these field monitoring systems is illustrated with an example of the monitoring system’s data output.