Originally, the Webinar was supposed to be realized at the Faculty of civil engineering in Rijeka, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic we have decided to keep our attendee’s health a priority. The Webinar attended participants from different municipalities and cities from Croatia, as well as students and engineers which tackle the problem of beach erosion.

You can watch the lectures from the Webinar here. The Webinar is in Croatian.

The database contains data received from local government which provided us with insights such as which beaches were and were not nourished, what materials were used for nourishment, what granulation, etc. Some data was collected using GIS, while others were extracted from the Regional program of beach management which were developed per county in 2015.

This database will allow for further data analysis providing us with insight into natural beach erosion such as what granulation is present on frequently nourished beaches or such as what is the average expense of beach nourishment as well as what morphological factors correlate with an increase in spending on beach nourishment? Such, and many other questions we will be able to answer based on this data set and possibly reduce future beach erosion.

One of the significant consequences of climate change will be the rapid increase of the mean sea-level. In addition, more frequent storm surges (acqua alta) associated with stormy weather are expected along the shores of the Adriatic Sea, including in the Kvarner area. In combination with increasing rainfall and hence river discharges, there is high likelihood of coastal flooding along some parts of the Kvarner coast. The effects of the increasing mean and extreme sea levels on the Kvarner coast have been little investigated, which is the case for much of the Croatian Adriatic coast. The coast of Kvarner area is mostly rocky and stable. Natural gravel and sandy beaches are the most vulnerable parts of the coast, and they are extremely important for tourism. They cover a relatively small part of the coast: 11.5% of the Liburnian coast, 13.5% of the Vinodol coast, 10.3% of the island of Krk, 11.2% of the island of Cres, 5.5% of the island of Lošinj and 20.7% of the island of Rab. Some beaches have completely eroded and others noticeably diminished because of man-made changes, but also due to a decreased sediment supply caused by human alterations to the torrential streams. The objective of this project is to determine the degree of vulnerability of the entire Kvarner coastline to present and future decadal timescale climatic and oceanographic conditions, but with a particular focus on the Kvarner beaches. The assessment will be based on predictions from global and regional climate models, and the analysis of newly data to be collected on the state of the Kvarner coast, which mostly belongs to the territory of the Primorsko-goranska County. Equipment from the Research Infrastructure Development Project at the University of Rijeka Campus (RISK) will be used for field measurements. Based on the vulnerability assessments, technical solutions for the reduction of the effects of climate change will be proposed. The vulnerability maps produced will be important for future integrated coastal management plans.