Protection against flooding of the harbour of Ostend (Belgium) by the construction of storm walls

The city of Ostend is threatened by floodings due to wave overtopping over the quays of the harbour of Ostend. For this reason storm return walls have to protect the city. This paper describes the design of these storm return walls, starting from the determination of the hydrodynamic boundary conditions, the calculation of wave overtopping discharges and wave forces and the final geotechnical and structural design of the storm return walls.