CAP04: SharkSafe Barrier Design Decision Support System

When the development of coastal infrastructures is considered, be it a jetty, a quay or even a breakwater, environmental factors such as currents, waves and winds together with geotechnical conditions are needed to inform the design of a sustainable infrastructure. Although the required data are now available, they are scattered over various databases, which can lead to prolonged designing and costing processes, specifically for SMEs and startups with limited human resources.

SharkSafe Barrier (SSB) Pty is a South African Start-up Company that developed a novel eco-friendly and shark-specific barrier, inspired by nature, to keep large sharks separated from surfers and swimmers. The SSB enclosures can be installed as deep as 8 meters, to encircle and protect surfers and swimmers, in areas affected by the sharks’ presence. The SSB installations need to be custom-made and, to provide realistic quotes for each installation, we need to source the specific information associated with each area, which is a time-consuming process. The sea substrate informs on the type of anchorage to be used, the bathymetry and tide inform on the size and number of differently designed Units to be installed and finally, the wave actions can indicate whether the installation in the area is low risk, high risk or not suitable. Our challenge is to set up a software (API) that will automatically source all these information at once, based on the GPS position of the barrier, with a map interface where we can draw a line where the installation is meant to be. The line will then be used by the software to source the bathymetry information relevant to the profile, and automatically provide the number of SSB anchors and Units, with relevant design size and quantity. This way we will be able to import the quantities of the different parts to be used to a separate excel spreadsheet, to generate site-specific quotes for the material.

An interactive digital tool to:
(1) automatically source and group together information currently available on different websites, from a GPS position (2) allow for superimposing to a map the profile of an SSB installation
(3) combine the information and the profile to generate quantitative information on the SSB design

IT developer (full stack developer, SQL, html/ccs combo)
Oceanographer
Coastal engineering
Marine biologist
Applied mathematician