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SAMC
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• ANNUAL REPORT 2013
Coastal erosion processes
If wave and current actions did not transport the eroded
materials away from the shore, the bluff would be in a
state of equilibrium. Sediment transportation in the
Arctic is not very different from sediment transportation
in more temperate regions. The seasonal variations,
however, can be very high in Arctic regions, with low to
none sediment transport in the ice-covered season and
very high rate of sediment transport in the season with
high discharge from the rivers (with sediments from
glacial activity and riverbank erosion) and high erosion
along the shore lines. In 2013, MSc student Kulkarni
did his master’s study on predicting the potential of
sediment transportation outside the Baydara Bay site,
done with supervision from Raed Lubbad.
Erosion protection
As the erosion rates are high and the thermal degrada-
tion of the permafrost soil is important for the erosion
process, understanding and predicting erosion is vital
in order to build structures and infrastructure with
adapted and adequate design to meet present and
future Arctic coastal challenges. A natural continua-
tion is designing structures to deal with and withstand
the erosion processes. This means designing coastal
structures which can withstand the impact of ice and
waves and also reduce or stop permafrost degrada-
tion. The solution is structures which either establish or
re-establish a permafrost regime by passive or active
cooling systems or thermal insulation. Currently some
field studies are being undertaken of existing coastal
structures in Svalbard. For field studies in the Arctic,
Svalbard represents a huge outdoor laboratory where
the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS) is the natural
midpoint, with students, researchers and logistic
experience. SINTEF has been present for project work
in these areas for many years, among others connected
to erosion protection studies in the Svea settlement (60
km south of Longyearbyen). The protective structures
are made by local soils and imported geosynthetics
and have been withstanding abrasion and impact from
waves, ice and sea bed soils for several years. For the
thermal situation, there is no negative impact on the
thermal regime in soils behind the protective structures.
The studies are performed in the Kapp Amsterdam area
PhD candidate Aleksyutina observes the permafrost sampling. Hole #4, low terrace, Baydara Bay, June 2013.
Photo: Jomar Finseth