Patterns In The nearShore (PITS). Coastlines have been environments of vital importance in human history and continue to play a primary role in today’s society. The vast majority of the human population lives in close proximity to the open coast or along more protected estuaries, to the point that the coastline landscape is often a sequence of large cities and industrial centres. Ultimately, coastlines play a major economic role at the global scale. But exactly for the reasons just outlined, coastlines are subject to a tremendous pressure driven by the interaction between natural processes (usually erosive in the long-term), climatic and human drivers. The problem is at the global scale but management efforts to limit hazards and risk require a much deeper, multi-scale understanding of coastline geophysics. PITS will address the future of our coastlines: how their morphology changes over time, how feedbacks and nonlinear interactions (including the ones that might arise as a result of the combination of physical and biological processes) can cause unexpected changes, from the development of mesmerizing patterns to altering hazards and risks related to storms and flooding. PITS will tackle a range of spatial and temporal scales and so address both the underlying fast- and small-scale physical processes (e.g., the physics of sediment resuspension) and the slow- and large-scale effects of climate change (e.g.. sea-level rise) and anthropogenic disturbances (e.g., land reclamation and/or restoration). PITS will benefit geosciences (e.g., sediment transport and morphodynamics), nearshore oceanography and ecology (e.g., role of disturbances on population dynamics) and will provide new theories on the formation of natural patterns at different spatial and temporal scales. The objective of PITS is to address a) how/why/when, in the face of the many nonlinear complex interactions, spatial and temporal patterns emerge in nearshore morphodynamics, and b) develop predictive tools using Machine Learning techniques. PITS aims at enhancing our knowledge of the processes that shape the form and function of nearshore environments. This involves addressing feedbacks between physical processes and sometimes even connecting physical and biological processes. PITS will integrate strengths between the PI and the host institution, and will adopt a variety of techniques (from traditional numerical modelling to machine learning) to test the hypothesis that natural environments are more than the (linear) sum of its components (e.g., physics, biology …), and that in fact the functioning and evolution is dominated by hydrodynamics-sediment transport-morphology feedbacks (the so-called morphodynamic loop) which can in turn result in pattern formation (the so-called system self-organization). The patterns studied in PITS have been chosen because they are representative of different spatial and temporal scales, their relevance range from scientific (e.g., beach cusps) to ecological, societal and economic (e.g., shoreline stability), they can be affected by episodic events (e.g., storm impacts on inner shelf bedforms) or slowly evolve over extremely long temporal scales (e.g., estuarine evolution), they deal with purely physical or with bio-physical feedbacks (e.g., estuaries). In terms of modelling and data analysis, PITS will use a variety of techniques that have recently been shown to be particularly successful in unfolding the nonlinear properties of the system. These techniques apply to both process-based models (e.g., cellular automata) and data-driven models (e.g., genetic programming). PITS will address how feedbacks and nonlinear interactions (including the ones resulting from the combination of physical and biological processes) shape natural environments over a variety of spatial and temporal scales.

Coastal zones are essential for social and economical developments. Located at the interface between ocean and continent, the coasts are vulnerable to environmental hazard and are currently facing an intensification of risk associated with increasing human pressure and the context of global climate change. This project focuses on two regions of the world particularly exposed to coastal vulnerability: West Africa and Vietnam. The environmental conditions governing hydro-sedimentary functioning differ drastically between the two regions. Erosion in West Africa is induced all year long by high-energy long swells; in contrast, Vietnam shows paroxystic events induced by typhoons. Even though the societal issues are manifest in these areas, their hydro-sedimentary functioning remains poorly known and limits social and economical development. The objective of the COASTVAR project is to advance our understanding by characterizing the morphological evolution (aerial and submerged), the driving forces and hydro-morphodynamic processes, from event to seasonal and interannual scales. Emphasis will be given to extreme events and their long-term effect, and to surf-shelf exchanges associated with the wave-induced circulation. In the first project task, innovative observational tools (video imagery and drone) will be used in addition to conventional instruments. In a second task, deep-water wave conditions will be downscaled to the beach, then nearshore configurations of a 3D coupled wave-current model will be set up. In a third task, the ECORS beach evolution predictor (PEA SHOM-DGA), which was yet only tested in mid-latitude environments, will be applied for the first time to tropical coastal systems. Our objective here is to obtain a generic operational tool that can be applied to any coast in the world. The research developed in the COASTVAR project has a strong dual aspect. First, it will provide the first high quality survey and forecasting system for the selected regions (waves, currents and bathymetry), which will be highly relevant to military action. Then, it will propose tools to anticipate coastal risks (erosion and submersion), quantify vulnerability and exposure of people to hazard, and lay solid grounds to improve coastal management.

RICOCHET addresses both basic/fundamental scientific questions and their societal applications. The financing instrument (PRCE: Research projects collaborative – Enterprise) supporting the project RICOCHET should allow us to develop and strengthen collaborations between the academic research and the socio-economic worlds. RICOCHET addresses the management of coastal territories that are highly exposed to CC related hazards because of their geographical position, between land and ocean. Along this particular domain, hazards come from coastal erosion and submersion as well as from flooding, flash floods, and landslides. More specifically, due to global/local environmental and societal changes, the project also considers environments issues requiring population relocation. RICOCHET involves both territory/risk managers working on societal needs and scientists, for improving the understanding of coastal dynamics from a global point of view. For this purpose, coastal areas sensitive to cliff recession and to continental flooding but also to demographic pressures are analysed. The project has 3 main objectives: 1) Understanding the present-day Land/Sea continuum dynamics (beach/cliff/hinterland) and assessment of the sedimentary balance along-shore and from continental; 2) Definition of multi-sectorial impact induced by GC (climate, environmental and social/economic changes), e.g., impacts of the increase of storms frequency and SLR on the cliff-beach system functioning. 3) Supporting the stakeholders and politics in their apprehension and questioning about the impacts of GC on coastal territories to provide them with tools to adopt sustainable coastal management strategies. Highly based on interactions of continental and coastal processes, our approach will consist in developing an integrated risk assessment (multi-hazard and multi-risk analysis). Results will provide risk communication tools, and decision/management tools for the risk management of seashore cliffs environments. Project is remarkable in 2 respects. Firstly, the originality and the particularity of the project consist in the choice of a specific type of coast (coastal cliffs and slopes subjected to fast retreat). Indeed, these territories require more than other type of coast, to consider the interactions of continental and marine processes. Secondly, the project will consider the cascade effects and chains of impacts for a global risk assessment. Because, these processes affect several sectors (agricultural areas, industrial structures, individual houses and tourism infrastructures…), an economic analysis will be conducted to analyse acceptable and sustainable management strategies for a better management and risk prevention in coastal areas. Methodological and technological innovations of RICOCHET come from the use and development of novel methods to monitor the coastal dynamics (physical processes and planning) and tools to evaluate and manage impacts. These are complementary aspects which should provide multi-temporal, multi-scale, and multi-sensor data for a better risk management. A multi-sectoral economic analysis, as well as territorial development proposals will provide the transfer of the scientific advances towards the public services to enhance the adopted strategies for the risk reduction/adjustment. This knowledge transfer will also be effective by the delivery of a diagnostic tool that could be directly integrated in the State services systems. This tool will be designed in order to be exploitable to other regions affected by these concerns. Valorisation of the results will also be done following these 2 axes: academic valorisation through publications (International Refereed Journals with high impact factors) and communications in congress, and technical and industrial valorisation, thanks to the knowledge transfer that will allow the enterprises to be more active on new markets and new products related to decision support systems and guidelines.

The Sea of Marmara has been in the focus of national and international research groups for tectonic, paleoseismological and paleoceanographic studies because of its tectonic setting on the North Anatolian Fault (NAF), its earthquake risk and its location on a gateway between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. After the 1912 Mürefte and 1999 Kocaeli earthquakes, the presence of a seismic gap in the Sea of Marmara and its rupture with a M>7 earthquake in the near future are now accepted by most authorities. Determination of the NAF segment(s) constituting the seismic gap and the magnitude of the earthquake(s) that could be caused by their rupture are of vital importance for earthquake risk assessment for the Istanbul area specifically and for the Marmara region in general. Within the framework of 15 years of continuous collaboration between Turkish and French research groups, we carried out a marine survey in the Sea of Marmara during October-November 2014 with R/V Pourquoi Pas?. During this 20-day cruise we set up an acoustic ranging geodetic experiment along the Central High segment of NAF and deployed ocean bottom seismometers (OBS). This proposal will analyze the cores and the data generated by the geodetic experiment and the OBSs, with the following objectives of: (1) Evaluating the possibility to measure creep on the Central Marmara segment by analyzing the data from the in-situ marine acoustic-ranging experiment and from far-field continuous land-based (2) Acquiring new hydrologic data and bottom pressure time series to eliminate the effect of the water column on acoustic travel time variability (3) Improving the fine-scale distribution of the near-fault seismicity. The OBS data will be integrated with land-network data to better characterize the near-fault seismicity (4) Designing an optimal submarine monitoring observatory to be implemented in the Sea of Marmara. The design will be based on the results from these seismological data integration, geodetic experiments and bottom pressure recordings, and from previous submarine equipment deployments, which mostly focused on fluid emission sites. This collaborative project consists of five work packages and involves 7 research groups : 5 from France (Ifremer, LDO, CEREGE, ISTERRE, LIENs) and 2 from Turkey (ITU and KOERI).

Among the great challenges of operational flow monitoring, Suspended Particle Mater (SPM) measurements are of primary importance nowadays because they address several fundamental environmental, industrial and society issues related to the monitoring and prediction of extreme climatic events and their impact on fluvial, estuarine and coastal nearshore morphodynamics; the management of hydro-electrical resources; the integrated coastline management strategy; the monitoring of waste water networks; the optimisation of our natural water and sediment resources; the design of hydraulic structures; the fisheries resources management. Besides, SPM are clearly identified as one of the key factors driving the effective functioning of coastal marine areas. In a context of underwater warfare, the lack of knowledge concerning SPM dynamics currently represents an obstacle to the successful deployment of marine platforms during military surveillance and/or combat operations. Access to a reliable SPM measurements science thus possesses a solid dual interest, answering to both civil and military needs, and converging towards a better knowledge of the physical processes responsible for the impacts of SPM on the environment and the socio-economical context. However, the science of SPM measurement, which aims at estimating SPM concentration, sizes and fluxes, remains at a very low Technological Readiness Level (TRL3) in spite of the significant progress made over the past two decades in operational monitoring of flow current, discharge and bathymetry (TRL>6). This situation arises from the inherent complexity of the SPM measurement principle, requiring scientific knowledge and methodological expertise still not readily accessible to the industrial sector. As a result, a profound technological gap exists in SPM measurement science between the academic and industrial sectors. The present MESURE project has the objective to overcome this gap via the transfer of skills and know-how acquired during 2 DGA funded PhD thesis (G. Formant, LDO, 2015, T. Revil-Baudard, LEGI, 2014) toward the industrial partners of the project (UBERTONE and CNR), in order to respond to the urgent needs of this dual market. The project has the following objectives: 1. Make a significant technological step toward operational SPM measurement (TRL 5) 2. Transfer the measurement innovation to the SPM technology developed by the company UBERTONE 3. Allow the technological evolution of existing operational hydroacoustic instruments toward operational SPM technology 4. Valorise the developed SPM technology among the industrial (CNR) and public (SHOM, IRD, IRSTEA) operators and within the European research consortium Hydralab+ (H2020 project) To reach these objectives, two specific tools will be developed: the hydroacoustic inversion tool HYDRAC and the prototype UB-MES by the UBERTONE company. The originality of the envisioned tools lies in their high technological readiness level (TRL 5) , which ensures the emergence of a performant SPM technology of operational use and its potential commercialization by the business partner. Furthermore, the operational use of the project output technology shall cover a large spectrum of civil applications (industry and research) but also defence applications via its implementation on hydroacoustic field data to be provided by the SHOM, partner of the project.