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World Oceans Day 2025: nature-based and eco-engineered coastal protection solutions

Wednesday, 4 June, 2025

It’s World Oceans Day this Sunday - so a good time to tell you about a UCD Sustainability seed funded project looking at coastal protection.

The RECONCILE project, led by Dr Md Salauddin of University College Dublin School of Civil Engineering, is exploring how both nature-based and eco-engineered coastal protection solutions - such as sugar kelp, mussel beds and artificial reefs - can reduce erosion and lessen wave impacts while supporting marine biodiversity.

As part of this research, he is carrying out small-scale wave experiments in a flume tank in UCD’s Environmental Hydrodynamics and Coastal Resilience (EHCR) Lab to test the effectiveness of both natural and eco-engineered solutions against rising sea levels and storm surges.

The RECONCILE project seeks to understand how infrastructure can adapt to climate change without compromising the health of ocean ecosystems.

It's all about, as Dr Md Salauddin says, 'Building with nature'.

UCD Sustainability

University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland.
E: vpsustainability@ucd.ie