HKV and IHE Delft team takes first place in the Innovation Challenge organised by World Bank’s West Africa Coastal Area Management Program to combat coastal erosion. The winners of this challenge were announced on 18 November.

Coastal resiliency

Coastal erosion, flooding and pollution caused 13,000 deaths along the Western African coast in 2017. One year later the World Bank approved a credit of 190 million dollar for the first West Africa Coastal Resilience Investment Program in Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Mauritania, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal and Togo. 

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Coastal erosion in West Africa
Coastal erosion in West Africa. (photo: World Bank via NDF website)
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Coastal erosion in West Africa
Coastal erosion in West Africa. (photo: World Bank via NDF website)

Call for innovations

For the exchange of knowledge and expertise, the West Africa Coastal Area (WACA) platform was created. Earlier this year the platform started an innovation challenge to maximize the opportunities for new ideas.

‘Accessing knowledge and solutions isn’t that easy, let alone accessing innovation’, said Benoit Bosquet, Director, EAP Sustainable Development and Chair of the Jury. ‘We need to find new ways to stop coastal erosion and should not be afraid to call for help. That is exactly what this Call for Innovation is doing, in response to the monumental challenge of coastal degradation in West Africa’, Bosquet explained.

Winning concepts

The challenge started in April and resulted in 22 submissions. Five nominated entries had the opportunity to present their solutions on 18 November, resulting in three Dutch winning teams.

  • 1st place: WAC-APP: App to Explore the Impacts of Coastal Interventions by HKV and IHE-Delft Institute;
  • 2nd place: Trans-Sand: Transnational Bypass Scheme Funded by a public-private dredging fund by Egis, Deltares and Finance for Impact;
  • 3rd place: SA-POD: Systems Approach for Port Development by Witteveen+Bos, CDR International, Boskalis, PENaf and Wetlands International.

The three winners received monetary awards to further develop their ideas into operational concepts.

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WAC app can predict new coastline after inteventions. (from video HKV)
WAC app can explore the coastline impacts of certain interventions. (photo: still from video HKV)
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WAC app can predict new coastline after inteventions. (from video HKV)
WAC app can explore the coastline impacts of certain interventions. (photo: still from video HKV)

App to predict impacts

The winning entry, the WAC-app is an interactive coastal planning tool that can help coastal authorities in early sorting and exploration of viable solutions for port developments and in combating coastal erosion.

The app is based on a new validated coastal evolution model to explore the coastline impacts of certain interventions, such a beach nourishments and hard defence structures. Based on satellite data and pre-defined wave conditions, the app can calculate the expected new coastline.

Demo video on the interactive coastal planning WAC-app developed by HKV and IHE Delft.
This news item is based on content originally published on the websites of HKV, IHE-Delft and WACA program.