Coast to coast – two decades of collaboration

The 8th Scotland-Norway Waves & Marine Hydrodynamics Symposium was held at the Royal Society of Edinburgh on 22 and 23 October this year.

The two-day event was the continuation of a strong and growing relationship between academics in Scotland and Norway that began in 2005 with the signing of an agreement between the RSE and the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters (DNVA).

The purpose of that agreement is to promote and fund research activity which supports  increased collaboration between the national academies of the two countries. Since their inception the Wave Symposia have continued to grow, fostering relationships between international researchers within Scotland and Norway.

Professor Peter Davies FRSE is Emeritus Professor of Fluid Dynamics at the University of Dundee. He said: “There is a lot of research activity between Scotland and Norway looking at the same kind of problems in water waves. We have kept the symposia going since the first one in 2008, and a lot more Scottish universities have become involved, as have Norwegian institutions.

“We have roughly one third of our attendees from Scotland, a third from Norway and the final third from elsewhere so we have a good representation of the international context.”

Symposia of a growing field

As many of the researchers explained in their own presentations, our understanding of the behaviour of waves and the seas, especially as they interact either with one another, or with different environmental factors such as different seafloors, and how they change with conditions, is growing all the time.

This partnership is critical to this expanding horizon.

For example, the first presentation was delivered by Professor Kai Christensen of the University of Oslo’s Department of Geosciences, covering the latest laboratory-based research into flow near sea floors with a permeable bottom – for example gravel.

Following presentations of wave behaviours over muddy sea floors, by Masoud Hayatdavoodi of the University of Dundee, and transport and mixing of particles in waves and turbulence by Simen Ellingsen of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, all showed the most recent updates of studies ongoing.

They show the field as it is, up to the minute. It is science being done at the edge of our understanding of the problems being studied.

Ricardo Barros of Loughborough University said: “The first time this was organised in 2008 it was strictly on internal waves in the ocean, and that is my area. Now they have branched out, so for example there was a whole section on how autonomous vehicles can be used in research.

“Peter Davies and John Grue are leading experts, and thanks to them many people were trained to follow their steps, and some of them became academics, and many of them are here at this symposium.”

The symposia are a melting pot of different ideas, drawing in researchers from across the Atlantic.

Peter Diamessis, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University, said: “I grew up in Greece so it is nice to come and work with European colleagues because it is a refreshing perspective. Here there are field-going oceanographers and more basic fluid mechanics folk, and I get some new perspectives here. It is a very warm and welcoming environment, emotionally I am boosted when I leave this place.”

He added that what typifies the symposia is the mix of both basic and applied science, the combination of which can lead to the better development of practical tools to be used in the field.

These might be tools that could be turned to marine conservation tasks, or observational tools in difficult environments, studies of ocean circulation, ocean weather systems, ecosystem dynamics, water quality, fisheries.

As Professor Grue said the morning before the symposium even began – transportation, food, the environment. 70 per cent of the Earth’s surface. The potential horizons for study are practically limitless.

A healthy research ecosystem

The symposia also serve as their own ecosystem for researchers to grow. Presentations frequently displayed a vast array of researchers who were at varying stages of their careers, with an emphasis on the post-doctoral stage. The invitation of new perspectives plays a vital role.

Professor John Grue, of the University of Oslo’s Department of Mathematics, said: “Many of the presentations we have seen show the importance of having post-doctoral researchers involved in these research projects.

“As people come up through university and then finish their Masters and then PhDs, they have so many new ideas and new ways of tackling problems – and there are always new problems and new things to find out.

“The oceans are obviously so important for our food and transport, as well as the environment, and there is so much that we don’t know.”

“For example, plastics have only been around for about 100 years, this is a new problem, and we are still finding out so much.”

Challenging environments

One session highlighted a range of work conducted by various autonomous systems – drones. Talks about the different trade-off factors in designing, building, and using a drone for research showed just how difficult it is to reach much of the ocean floor in order to study it. Physical dimensions, battery type and life, operational range and depth, compute power and finally sensor payload are all competing factors in using these vehicles. As one speaker put it: “Physics is not your friend.”

However, despite those trade-offs, ocean-going drones are capable of doing weeks-long research deployments at extreme depths, offering oceanographers a valuable addition to their toolkit.

But it seems that the field can take you almost wherever you can point your imagination. During the discussion section one questioner asked the panel about the potential arms race in deep sea drones, given how drones have been used in the defence of Ukraine after Russia’s invasion. The response highlighted how relatively cheap drones were, and how the cost of the damage they could do to, for example, telecomms cables, was orders of magnitude higher.

Different perspectives at the cutting edge

The symposium is a snapshot of entire careers-worth of time, thought, hypothesis, experiment and review. Described by one as “very friendly and incredibly open environment”, where the presentation of findings, or updates as to the progress of research openly invites questions, comments, or critique.

On Day Two of the gathering, Michela De Dominicis, senior scientist at the National Oceanography Centre in the UK presented her latest findings and was eager to hear what people thought.

She said: “In my case I am showing numerical simulations. I am showing some new results that I have just got, and I have an interpretation of that but it is good to have some external opinions because I might not have picked some things that other people can, or they have encountered some similar things – because if I just stay in my office I might not find out.

“Science is done by collaborating with other people, not just by sitting in an office.”

It is for precisely this reason that the symposium was set up, and for precisely this reason that it continues. To return to Professor Grue’s words, the oceans are vital for our food, our transportation of goods, and our environment. The United Nationsestimates that over 80 per cent of global trade is conducted by sea, the seas cover 70 per cent of the Earth’s surface. Their continued study is crucial to our understanding, and these symposia are a vital component of that study.