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A full circle in coastal research: Professor Qin Jim Chen returns to DHI after 30 years to advance nature-based solutions

DHI experts and visiting researcher Professor Qin Jim Chen are leading the development of new science-based models to enable improved coastal decision-making. Together, they are investigating ways to account for coastal vegetation and its relevance for wave attenuation and coastal circulation in the design of nature-based solutions (NBS).
Dr. Qin Jim Chen is a professor at Northeastern University in Boston where he focuses his research on coastal processes and nature-based solutions using field campaigns, numerical modelling and physics-informed neural networks. However, it all started when Dr. Chen worked for two years with DHI 30 years ago as part of his PhD study on Boussinesq models at the ICCH (International Research Centre for Computational Hydrodynamics). Later, his career took him to Louisiana State University and now Northeastern University in Boston; always with focus on coastal hydrodynamics. Now 30 years later, he has returned to DHI – and the Technical University of Denmark – to renew collaboration as part of his academic sabbatical.
‘The increase in extreme weather events around the world makes it imperative that we have multiple lines of defence for coastal communities and critical infrastructure. Nature-based solutions are one such critical line of defence. However, the challenge is that there are no official or universal design guidelines for NbS, so how can we make robust decisions on when and where to implement which nature-based solution?’ explains Dr. Chen about his motivation for research in NbS.
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‘Ultimately, the goal is to assign values and strength to different types of NbS and to have a science-based framework for decisions on e.g. what type of extreme event the NbS should withstand such as tropical storms or hurricanes. In other words, the engineering community and decision makers need a framework that enables more efficient and objective decision-making surrounding the complex design of NbS and at the same time allows for cost efficiency and adaptability in a changing climate.’
Dr. Chen will collaborate with DHI experts on testing the accuracy of DHI’s wave modelling solutions with his field data. The end goal is to remove subjective decision-making in coastal and marine engineering projects by increasing confidence in modelling tools such as MIKE 21 SW &nbsp;and MIKE 3 Wave FM.
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Collaboration will close research gap between field conditions and modelling
Niels Gjoel Jacobsen, Principal Engineer at DHI, elaborates on the close collaboration, ‘The work of Dr. Chen is an important part of the foundation for developing new tools to predict the effectiveness of nature-based solutions. By comparing the results of our modelling predictions with his field data, we hope to convince even more in the engineering community of the validity of using such quantitative modelling tools when designing nature-based solutions.’&nbsp;
The two researchers are currently working on the comparison between field data and numerical predictions on wave attenuation through marshlands under the landfall of a tropical storm. The aim is to improve on the swaying effect through analytical models so that extrapolation to field conditions is easily achieved and can be incorporated in MIKE Powered by DHI’s practical engineering models.
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There is a need for a more holistic approach to nature-based solutions
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‘There needs to be a more complex and holistic approach to NbS where we also include the value of ecosystem services as one example of co-benefits. The perspective on NbS should include other co-benefits than simply the value of reducing the risk of e.g. flooding or erosion, and this is why we need to have a broad range of experts in such matters on board.’&nbsp;
Dr. Chen adds, ‘The great thing about working with DHI is that they have a strong team of marine biologists and ecologists, so we can leverage their expertise on the seasonal characteristics of specific species of seagrass or mussel banks, for example. By combining this knowledge with advanced engineering models, we will hopefully be able to contribute to more resilient nature-based solutions as a part of climate adaptation measures.’

DHI biologists film bats and birds at night to train MUSE AI system for Ecowende offshore wind farm

A team of DHI biologists recently collected field data on bats’ and birds’ movements at night. The data will be used to train DHI’s MUSE artificial intelligence (AI) solution to automatically discriminate between bats and birds at night. MUSE will be deployed at Ecowende’s pioneering offshore wind farm to monitor and protect bats.Dutch wind farm developer Ecowende – a joint venture of Shell, Eneco and Chubu – will set a new ecological standard for building and operating offshore wind farms, with minimal impact on the natural habitat of birds, bats and marine mammals, and with a thriving underwater world. To do so, Ecowende puts state-of-the-art monitoring and mitigation technologies and innovations at their core in their windfarm Hollandse Kust West VI. 
 
Recording bats and birds at night
DHI is a proud partner to the Ecowende project, and a team of DHI biologists recently went out at night to record bats and songbirds at night. DHI’s MUSE system integrates any combination of radars, digital cameras and acoustic sensors to detect, monitor and protect birds and bats while maximising uptime of the wind turbines. MUSE AI for bird species recognition during daytime was launched a few years ago. The next step is to enable the MUSE AI algorithm to recognise and discriminate between bats and small birds during the night, using the new recordings as training data. 
 
Minimise impact on vulnerable speciesMost bats are of species that are considered vulnerable and are protected by the EU Habitat Directive, and European offshore windfarms must be able to document how they will minimise the negative impact on bats when in operation. As some bat species migrate between the Netherlands and the UK, they risk encountering and potentially colliding with turbines in an offshore windfarm. In fact, though there is a lot of knowledge about bats on land, there is still much to learn about bats at sea. As such, Ecowende wants to gain as much knowledge as possible about these species to better understand how one should mitigate the impact on bats at sea. Innovations from DHI, such as MUSE coupled with thermal cameras, will support Ecowende’s monitoring and research programme.
Bats are an important part of the ecosystem. Some species of bats are predators of common nocturnal insects and regulate these populations. Across Europe, there can be found around 45 species of bats, occupying a wide range of habitats. On land, they each face a variety of pressures such as landscape change, agricultural intensification and habitat fragmentation. 
Filming in Denmark’s bat hotspotsThe field team of DHI biologists borrowed an advanced cooled thermal camera, and subcontractor Circle Consult helped the team set up the advanced equipment for several nights in one of Denmark’s bat hotspots in the region Lolland-Falster. DHI MUSE AI experts will use the recordings to train the AI to automatically distinguish between bats and small birds in low light. This will eventually help to reduce bat collisions, and the DHI MUSE scientific team can create more detailed analyses and potentially discover unseen behavioural patterns of bats at night, ultimately helping to protect this vulnerable species group.

New biodiversity portal gathers unique knowledge about the North Sea marine environment

Today, DHI and TotalEnergies, as operator of the Danish Underground Consortium, presented the North Sea Environment Portal, which provides access to more than 40 years of data on the North Sea marine environment and biodiversity. The portal will support the work of combining future offshore energy facilities with responsible management of marine ecosystems.
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For the first time, comprehensive data on the seabed, biodiversity and environmental impacts of oil and gas platforms has been gathered in one portal and made available to researchers, authorities and decision-makers. The portal provides the ability to visualise and analyse data previously hidden away in reports, helping us understand e.g. to what extent platforms can serve as habitats for fish and wildlife.
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The North Sea Environment Portal is an important resource when designing future solutions for energy infrastructure. It provides valuable insight into how existing platforms can and have contributed to biodiversity, and how new projects such as wind farms and CCS installations can be designed with maximum consideration for the marine environment.
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DHI has collected and delivered environmental data and is responsible for the design and development of the new portal:
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‘At DHI, we have been collecting environmental data from the North Sea for decades, and we are very pleased that we are now helping to make this data easily accessible in an online portal. It gives all stakeholders a solid basis for analysing the natural variations in the North Sea's biodiversity and environmental status,’ says Mikael Kamp Sørensen, Executive Vice President of DHI’s Energy business unit.
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The Danish Ocean Institute (Danish: Tænketanken Hav) welcomes the new initiative:
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‘The new biodiversity portal marks an important step in sharing data on North Sea ecosystems and species. It contributes to knowledge about the marine environment and biodiversity associated with offshore structures - knowledge that can be used when considering marine life in other contexts, such as the construction of offshore wind turbines and CO2 storage below the sea surface. We are therefore pleased that the portal is now a reality, and we encourage data from all sectors to be shared publicly in the future,’ says Ditte Mandøe Andreasen, Program Manager at Ocean Institute.
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TotalEnergies sees the North Sea Portal as an important tool for the coming energy transition:
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‘The energy transition means that a huge amount of development needs to take place in the North Sea. Therefore, we are in a time where biodiversity and responsible development are more important than ever before. When we talk about our shared responsibility for the climate and biodiversity, it is very much about understanding the footprint we've already made, to develop the best solutions for tomorrow. And this is where the North Sea Environment Portal marks a breakthrough,’ says Ole Hansen, Managing Director of TotalEnergies EP Denmark.
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A joint effort for the future of the North Sea
The North Sea is one of Europe's most productive and busy seas. Not only is it a source of energy, fishing and transportation, it is also home to a high number of species and ecosystems that play a crucial role for both nature and the evolution and survival of species.
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The North Sea is facing major political ambitions, including large-scale CCS projects and large offshore wind farms. The North Sea Environment Portal is an important tool to support informed decisions that support sustainable development in the North Sea.
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Visit the North Sea Environment Portal here: https://www.northseaenvironmentportal.eu&nbsp;

MIKE 2025: Unlock powerful new features in the latest release from DHI

DHI has launched MIKE 2025, the latest version of its MIKE Powered by DHI software suite, bringing exciting advancements to all major products. This release is packed with new functionalities, tools and enhancements designed to empower water professionals with more robust, efficient and collaborative solutions. Clients with a valid Service Maintenance Agreement (SMA) or subscription can access these features at no additional cost.
 
Highlights from the MIKE 2025 release

MIKE+ introduces new features and improvements to enhance analysis, collaboration and data handling. Key updates include a new scatter plot window for result analysis, a Plots Manager for organised result visualisation, enhanced data export options and real-time collaboration enhancements. MIKE+ 2D Overland introduces isoline export to shapefiles, a new hazard tool for flood hazard quantification and a discharge calculation tool for assessing total discharge from 2D flow results. For water distribution, MIKE+ now includes Q-H results plotting for detailed pump performance analysis and a Modified Hazen-Williams head loss type for added flexibility in hydraulic modelling.
FEFLOW 10 delivers features to streamline modelling workflows, enhance visualisation and support advanced applications. Highlights include a new implicit modelling workflow for constructing geologically meaningful surfaces and structural models with ease and advanced map projection tools with online background maps for improved visual clarity.The release also introduces an extended Equation of State (EOS) for evaluating phase conditions in deep geothermal models and a streamlined standard transport formulation with an extended ‘Convective Form’ to simplify transport modelling across diverse applications, including direct Lithium extraction, aquifer remediation and geothermal storage and direct use.
MIKE 21 and MIKE 3 introduce updates for marine and coastal modelling. Key innovations include the new MIKE 21 Wave Model FM, DHI’s first unstructured Boussinesq-type wave model, and a new and improved engine for MIKE ECO Lab and MIKE ABM Lab. Improvements to LITPACK include interactive workflows and enhanced coastline evolution modelling, while the MIKE 3 Mud Transport model now features an optimised near-field/far-field method for assessing ship propeller impacts on seabed sediments. Additionally, streamlined workflows in MIKE Zero and expanded MARINE PP tools further elevate usability and efficiency.

 
Plus, all MIKE+, MIKE 21 and MIKE 3 subscriptions and perpetual licenses now support powerful Linux clusters equipped with hundreds of CPUs.
 
Ready to dive in?
Explore the new features or download the latest version.
 
See the new features in action at an upcoming webinar:                                                                        

9 Dec | MIKE 2025 Release – What's new in Water in Cities
10 Dec | MIKE 2025 Release – What's new in MIKE 21, MIKE 3 and LITPACK

 
For questions, or to reactivate an expired SMA, please contact your local DHI office. 

RWE partners with DHI and other leading marine scientists to monitor biodiversity using an ecosystem-based approach at its Kaskasi offshore wind farm

As part of a new partnership with leading scientists to improve monitoring of marine life, global energy company RWE has launched the SeaMe (Sustainable ecosystem approach in Monitoring the marine environment) project at its Kaskasi offshore wind farm off the German coast. The objective is to gain a comprehensive understanding of the interactions between offshore wind farms and the ecosystem through the use of a sound scientific approach, together with new AI-based and CO2-minimising monitoring technologies.
The three-year project ‘SeaMe’ uses innovative monitoring technologies – including a drone and an autonomous underwater vehicle, both equipped with AI-based cameras, as well as environmental DNA sampling. Simultaneous integration of all collected data will enable monitoring of the ecosystem within the Kaskasi offshore wind farm with the goal of reducing carbon intensity of monitoring as well as minimising the impact on marine life.
 
‘The SeaMe project is a great example of the increasing focus on biodiversity protection in offshore renewables, and we are proud to support the project with our tools and expertise. Our innovation in methods for quantifying biodiversity metrics can make a tangible difference in global efforts to restore and protect biodiversity,’ states Mikael Kamp Sørensen, Executive Vice President for Energy &amp; Ports in DHI.
 
Innovative and ecosystem-based biodiversity monitoring approachOffshore wind is vital to tackling climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. However, it is equally important to ensure that possible impacts on the environment are minimised and mitigated. It is already mandatory by law in many countries to assess and monitor the state of the environment where offshore wind farms are developed, built and operated. These legal requirements, however, often focus on monitoring individual groups of organisms (e.g. fish, marine mammals, birds), and there has been no holistic approach to data gathering.
 
Thanks to new technologies, the simultaneous collection of data and effective data management, the SeaMe project will enable RWE to consider the ecosystem as a whole. One aim of the SeaMe project is to also monitor key components of the marine ecosystems that are usually left out of conventional monitoring programmes, such as small phytoplankton (microscopic algae) and zooplankton (e.g. krill), which play a vital role in feeding larger animals. In addition, a series of physical parameters such as temperature, salinity and oxygen will be measured to explain any possible changes in the distribution and abundance of species.
 
DHI will contribute to the SeaMe project as data coordinators, data host and data analysers. DHI will develop and host a data portal for RWE, where all the biodiversity data harvested from the main project will be stored and made available to all involved parties. The data portal will enable visualisation of all the different data streams and support scientifically-based communication and dissemination of the collected ecological data.
 
Furthermore, DHI will process the collected data with their EBM BioQ suite, which is a collection of analytical tools for ecosystem-based management. For example, DHI’s Biodiversity State Indicator (BSI) will be applied to assess the state of biodiversity at the site.
 
Deployment of more environmentally friendly monitoring techniquesThe joint project will investigate how innovative techniques can make monitoring less invasive and more sustainable compared to the current monitoring techniques. Whereas planes and ships are routinely used to monitor birds and mammals, SeaMe targets to replace these methods with a drone equipped with an AI-based camera system. SeaMe will also collect water samples and analyse them for environmental DNA. AI-based fish video monitoring will be performed using an autonomous underwater vehicle. Both methods will replace the traditional means of sampling the fish using nets, making the entire process less invasive. DHI will act as advisors for the data providers, providing advice on sampling strategy for eDNA and other novel monitoring technologies. 
 
Leading marine scientists to contribute their know-howRWE’s SeaMe project will be carried out in collaboration with prominent partners including the Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity at the University of Oldenburg (HIFMB), the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), BioConsult SH, the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) and DHI. 
 
All tests will take place at RWE’s Kaskasi offshore wind farm, which is located 35 kilometres off the coast of the German island of Heligoland. With a total installed capacity of 342 megawatts, the wind farm is capable of supplying the equivalent of approximately 400,000 German homes with green electricity. 
 
For further information, please contact Jesper Goodley Dannisøe (jda@dhigroup.com) for portal questions and Lars O. Mortensen (lamo@dhigroup.com) for BioQ questions.

DHI will join delegates from around the world at COP 16 in Cali, Colombia this October to address urgent challenges in biodiversity conservation and restoration.&nbsp;
COP 16 will bring together governments, observer organisations, indigenous communities, businesses, civil society, academia and the general public under the theme ‘Peace with nature’ and with participants from over 190 countries. This year's discussions will emphasise innovative technologies and analytical approaches that are critical for developing effective solutions to protect and restore biodiversity.
How DHI works with marine biodiversity&nbsp;
Marine biodiversity is a critical element in maintaining ecosystem functionality, which in turn supports industries and livelihoods globally. Yet, the lack of standardised biodiversity metrics presents a challenge in monitoring, assessing and mitigating biodiversity loss. Clients are increasingly challenged by the lack of standards and proven methods for reporting on the biodiversity impact of their business activities across industries and sectors.&nbsp;
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DHI has developed comprehensive, science-based methodologies that safeguard biodiversity and promote sustainable ecosystem management on a global scale. These methodologies support biodiversity initiatives through integrated solutions for monitoring, analysing, reporting, enhancing and restoring marine ecosystems.
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Collaborating with industries such as shipping, ports and offshore wind, DHI provides structured guidance to address biodiversity concerns while ensuring regulatory compliance.&nbsp;
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Go to LinkedIn to stay up-to-date with DHI's activities at COP 16.
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Learn more about DHI's solutions in biodiversity conservation and management:&nbsp;DHI Solution - Protect and restore marine biodiversity

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