COMPREHENSIVE MEASUREMENTS AND ANALYSIS OF SHIP WAVES IN THE ELBE ESTUARY, GERMANY

Hamburg has one of the biggest harbors in Europe and is a destination of the world's largest container vessels. However, the harbor approach extends for more than 100 km through the tidal Elbe estuary leading to a channel like confinement of the waterway, which is known to enhance primary ship wave processes and thus hydrodynamic forces on the river bed and banks. The ships speed is another major predictor for the ship wave intensity and an area of tension between environmental, nautical and economic interests. To determine the current state of the ship-induced loads on the banks and bed of the Elbe estuary, an ongoing in-situ measurement campaign along the estuary is set up to collect hydrodynamic data at different locations over a period of multiple years.