Report of the 9th International Conference on the Application of Physical Modelling in Coastal and Port Engineering and Science (Coastlab24)
The 9th International Conference on the Application of Physical Modelling in Coastal and Port Engineering and Science (Coastlab24), was held in Delft, the Netherlands, during May 13-16, 2024.
Organized by the IAHR Technical Committee on Coastal and Maritime Hydraulics and the Local Organising Committee, the Coastlab24 took place in Delft, Netherlands, from 13-16 May, 2024. The conference had three keynote lectures, 129 technical presentations in three parallel session, and 155 participants from 28 different countries.
The technical presentations were the main part of the conference. Each day started with a plenary Keynote. Other events during the conference were the Pre-Conference Lectures and Lab Workshop, Icebreaker drinks, Technical Tour, Conference Dinner, Podcast recordings, and Post Conference Tour.
The conference series focuses on Physical Modelling in Coastal Engineering and Science. Three decades after a period in which it was widely thought that increasing computer capacity would cause physical modelling to soon become obsolete, the science and craft of physical modelling is still very much alive, and each year many coastal modelling facilities are either being newly built or renovated. The Coastlab conference series focusses on the physical modelling and measurement techniques themselves, and on their application in the field of coastal engineering. The use of novel techniques measurement techniques like laser scanners, digital cameras and miniature sensors is more and more being incorporated in the physical modelling practise. Moreover, the generation of realistic wave fields (including tsunamis and ship waves) remains a challenge. Many activities are ongoing in the coastal area that are required to tackle several major societal challenges like climate change adaptation, the energy transition, and loss of natural habitat.
The main venue was Lijm&Cultuur, a 19th century glue factory, that is located very appropriately bordering the TU Delft campus, a water channel and a concrete factory. The professional management and technicians of the venue made the stay the participants very pleasant.
To improve the conference quality and make it more accessible we obtained contributions from several sponsors. Gold sponsors: Deltares, Rijkswaterstaat and Van Halteren, Silver sponsors: Van Oord and Nortek, and Bronze sponsors: Ubertone, Infram-Hydren, XStone/XStream, and MadTTech.
During the closure of the conference the chair of the Maritime Committee of IAHR, Zhiguo He, presented the next location of the conference for 2026 (CoastLab26), as was selected by the committee during the committee meeting.
Next Congress
CoastLab26, IIT Madras, Chennai, India.
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