South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is playing a key role in the development of one of the world’s biggest port projects.

The CSIR is currently executing a R10-million contract to conduct physical model studies for the planned new multibillion-dollar Khalifa port, which will be located in the United Arab Emirates, between Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The model studies are being carried out at the CSIR’s hydraulics laboratory, in Stellenbosch, and they are the biggest model investigation ever carried out by the science council in rand terms.

The contract was won against international competition and it is expected that further work will follow. The hydraulics lab is one of the ten top such facilities in the world, and is used for coastal and port engineering research.

When complete, Khalifa port will be one of the world’s biggest marine facilities and will cover an area of 2,2 km2. It will be constructed in five phases; at the conclusion of the first phase, Khalifa will have an annual capacity of two-million 20-foot-equivalent units (TEUs – the measuring unit for container capacity and traffic) and more than six-million tons of general cargo.

The CSIR is currently evaluating the design and layout of phase one, undertaking studies focused on the design of the extensive breakwaters which will protect the port against waves, and on the mooring conditions for the bulk carriers and container ships in the harbour. In this project, the CSIR is collaborating with other local and overseas institutions and companies.

These are the Abu Dhabi Ports Authority, Halcrow, Murray & Roberts, WSP Coastal Africa (under the aegis of the Centre for Port Research and Training), Stellenbosch University and the Delft University of Technology.

Meanwhile, back home, the CSIR has developed technologies that have made operations in South African ports safer and more efficient. This is the result of a project undertaken on behalf of Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA).

The CSIR developed an inte- grated port operations support system and a wave station network, designated WaveNet. Wave- Net is composed of seven stations, which collect data, in real-time, on waves, currents, tides, sea surface temperatures, winds and water quality. Regarding waves, for example, data is col- lected on wave height, period and direction. This data is also archived for future study.

The complete system includes an onshore base station and directional Wavefinder buoys. The buoys at Cape Point, East London and Richards Bay are fitted with global positioning systems to aid tracking. Because this data is also valuable for weather forecasting, an access link has been set up for the South African Weather Service.

Data collected by the CSIR over the past seven years is being used by TNPA in the project to widen and deepen the entrance channel to Durban harbour.

In an unrelated project, being carried out in cooperation with lead partner Thales Alenia Space under a European Commission-funded Framework Programme 6 research project into potential applications for Europe’s planned Galileo navigation satellite constellation, the CSIR identified fisheries as a likely beneficiary in South and Southern Africa for satellite navigation and communications services. Other potential applications included the built environment, health, tourism management, and traffic control and regulation.

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