Program Overview

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Introduction to the Coastal & Marine Engineering & Management Program

The Coastal & Marine Engineering & Management program is designed to promote high-level professionals in the fields of Coastal and Maritime Engineering and Management. The main objective of this master's program is to meet the challenges faced by the coastal zone due to the impacts of an ever-changing world by developing socially-oriented, ethical, and professional coastal management strategies.

Program Details

• Academic Year Start: September
• Duration: 2 years
• Study Load: 120 ECTS (including the Master's Final Thesis)
• Delivery: On-campus
• Language: English
• Places: 20
• Official Degree: Erasmus Mundus Master in Coastal and Marine Engineering and Management (CoMEM+) by the Universitat Politčcnica de Catalunya
• Participating Universities:
  • Universitat Politčcnica de Catalunya (UPC), Spain
  • Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway
  • Ecole Supérieure d'Engineurs des Travaux de la Construction (ESITC), France
  • Université Caen Normandie (UNICAEN), France
  • Universitŕ di Genova (UNIGE), Italy

Program Tracks

The program offers three different tracks:

• Track 1: Future Ports and Waterways (NTNU, UPC, ESITC/UNICAEN)
• Track 2: Coastal Environmental Engineering (NTNU, UPC, UNIGE)
• Track 3: Shore Management (NTNU, UNIGE, ESITC/UNICAEN)

Admission Objectives

The objectives of the admission process include:

• Offering high-quality and innovative education in the field of Coastal and Marine Engineering and Management
• Adding distinctive value from each of the European partner institutions' expertise
• Educating students in fundamental and specialized knowledge and intellectual skills in the field
• Training students in the most advanced tools and research techniques available within the field
• Building on existing fundamental knowledge and offering advanced knowledge and understanding of specializations accessible through the CoMEM partners' communities
• Creating awareness and educating students in the ethical and integral dimensions of their future profession
• Developing an informed understanding of the social, ethical, and professional responsibility in coastal management strategies
• Preparing students for employment in challenging careers within the field of coastal and marine engineering and management in Europe and worldwide

Competencies

Generic Competencies

Students with a Master's Degree in Coastal and Marine Civil Engineering should be able to:

• Design methods for coastal structures, shore protection, ports, waterways, and other coastal facilities
• Provide dredging and disposal solutions for contaminated sediments
• Design and operate inland waterways hydraulic structures and riverbanks
• Understand coastal hydrodynamics and their actions on the coast and man-made interventions
• Analyze physical processes responsible for coastline evolution
• Perform data analysis and synthesis of data and information from different sources with contemporary techniques and technologies
• Manage planning activities from a local scale to a regional and national scale
• Understand socio-economical exploitation of the coastal zone
• Work in teams, including cross- and inter-disciplinary work, and communicate effectively (both orally and in writing)
• Demonstrate social responsibility of business and entrepreneurship

Specific Competencies

After completing the program, students will have acquired:

• A track combining fundamentals of engineering projects and environmental and administrative knowledge
• Advanced knowledge and training in topics related to coastal dynamics and their implications, protection, and coastal management
• The bases to continue with more advanced concepts in coastal morphodynamics
• A better vision and ability to define and solve coastal problems through the mobility provided in the program

Knowledge

After completing the program, students will have knowledge of:

• The physics of the ocean and basic processes occurring in the coastal zone
• Coastal and oceanographic numerical modeling and laboratory modeling techniques
• Design of coastal structures and shore protection
• Geotechnical aspects related to foundations for port and waterways structures
• Port planning and operation
• Environmental issues before and after construction
• Coastal vulnerability within a sustainable framework
• Field campaigns and data treatment to evaluate problematic situations and plan/design solutions
• Developing beach management strategies for real-world coastal systems
• Integral coastal management assessing the efficiency of strategies in a global spatial framework
• Understanding the basis behind climate change and its effect on the coast
• Socio-economic effects and consequences of coastal protection and adaptation strategies

Skills

After completing the program, students will be able to:

• Analyze and interpret collected field data
• Perform time and frequency domain analysis of MetOcean data
• Quantify natural forcing on the coastline
• Apply state-of-the-art numerical models for coastal hydro- and morphodynamics
• Design coastal interventions and understand and predict the impacts of such interventions
• Offer alternatives to hard coastal engineering
• Design navigational infrastructure with resilience and adaptation to climate change in mind
• Compute the risk, vulnerability, and hazards including the decadal scale
• Perform risk management
• Manage conflicts in the work environment and assess socio-economic and social impacts of different coastal adaptation and protection strategies

Curriculum

The curriculum includes various courses and tracks tailored to the specific objectives of each track. Students begin the first semester of the first year at NTNU, and the second semester can be spent at UPC or other participating universities depending on the chosen track.

Master's Final Thesis

The Master's Thesis is an original exercise to be done individually and presented and defended before a university panel. It synthesizes and integrates the competences acquired on the course, focusing on a project in the sphere of specific civil engineering technologies.

Faculty Members

Information about faculty members involved in the program is available, highlighting their expertise and contributions to the field of Coastal and Marine Engineering and Management.

Conclusion

The Coastal & Marine Engineering & Management program at the Universitat Politčcnica de Catalunya offers a comprehensive and innovative approach to education in the field, combining theoretical knowledge with practical skills and international collaboration. The program is designed to meet the challenges of the coastal zone in an ever-changing world, preparing students for careers in coastal and marine engineering and management.