How FOCCUS Is Advancing Coastal Knowledge: Inside the Inventory of Applications

The FOCCUS project is taking a major step forward in strengthening Europe’s capacity to observe, predict, and manage the coastal ocean. A new public deliverable, “Inventory of Applications”, presents a full overview of the first suite of coastal applications co-designed with Member States and experts across Europe. Each tool integrates enhanced coastal observations, improved land–ocean modelling, and advanced Member State Coastal Systems (MSCS) to address environmental and societal challenges across three domains: coastal protection, blue economy, and climate hazards and resilience.

This inventory showcases how FOCCUS is building practical, scalable solutions — from reducing eutrophication to improving storm-surge forecasts — all aimed at delivering better coastal knowledge and actionable insight for decision-makers.

Figure 1: Visual depiction of all coastal applications, their location and main topic. Yellow applications refer to ESC 1 (section 2.1 of the deliverable), blue applications refer to ESC 2 (section 2.2 in the deliverable) and green applications refer to ESC 3

Tackling Pollution and Coastal Erosion

FOCCUS applications under Environmental and Societal Challenge 1 focus on protecting the coastal zone through improved assessments of pollution, sediment transport, and erosion.

One flagship application quantifies how land-based nutrient pollution drives eutrophication across the North Sea, supporting both the Marine Strategy Framework Directive and OSPAR’s Intersessional Correspondence Group on Ecological Modelling. Using an upgraded version of the Dutch Continental Shelf Model (using Delft3D FM), it assesses nutrient inflow, transport, and its influence on chlorophyll-a and other indicators across OSPAR Assessment Areas.

Another application advances understanding of sediment plume dispersion from dredging and extraction activities in the Belgian Continental Shelf, using an enhanced OSERIT-SEDIM Lagrangian model to simulate far-field impacts and pressures on benthic habitats. This work will support MSFD reporting on physical disturbance and help assess cumulative impacts over days to annual cycles.

FOCCUS also develops cross-scale coastal erosion assessments in multiple basins:

In the Northern Adriatic (Italy), a new sediment module is being integrated with wave–circulation models to improve erosion risk analysis in vulnerable zones such as Emilia-Romagna.
Along the German North Sea coast, a combined SCHISM–WWM–SED3D system, linked with XBeach, evaluates erosion during storm events and tests mitigation using coastal vegetation.
In the North-Western Black Sea, a seamless system assesses erosion risks from storms across Romania, Bulgaria and Ukraine, complemented by nature-based “what-if” mitigation scenarios.

Supporting a Sustainable Blue Economy

Under Environmental and Societal Challenge 2, FOCCUS delivers applications to enhance multi-use offshore operations and aquaculture.

In Norway, FOCCUS improves the modelling of fjord–shelf connectivity to better support aquaculture management, especially for salmon lice, pathogens and harmful algal blooms. By enhancing freshwater forcing and assimilating coastal observations, the application strengthens drift-modelling tools already used by operators and authorities.

In the German Bight, an integrated SCHISM–FABM–ECOSMO framework simulates the co-location of offshore wind and aquaculture systems. With ultra-high resolution around wind structures and new state variables for aquaculture species, the model provides essential insights into waves, phytoplankton, oxygen, and production potential to support planning.

A related application in the Southern North Sea evaluates the environmental impacts of combined wind-farm and aquaculture operations. By comparing multiple scenarios, it quantifies changes in primary production and stratification to inform MSFD, the EU Blue Deal, and national marine spatial planning.

Building Coastal Resilience to Climate Change and Extreme Events

Under Environmental and Societal Challenge 3, FOCCUS develops tools to track climate impacts, support ecosystem restoration, and improve early warning systems.

One application enhances understanding of seagrass as a coastal protection service in the Tyrrhenian Sea, expanding vegetation parameterizations to capture seasonal Posidonia traits and plant flexibility. This will help design better nature-based coastal restoration practices.

FOCCUS also upgrades a Mediterranean-wide, web-based system for monitoring and predicting marine heatwaves. By integrating new high-resolution satellite and model products, the service provides near real-time MHW detection, 10-day forecasts, and long-term variations across sub-regions.

Several applications aim to reduce risks from extreme events through improved forecast systems:

On the French Atlantic coast, FOCCUS develops two disjoint corrections to storm-surge forecasts using filtered baroclinic signals and machine-learning time series corrections.
In the Baltic–North Sea region, the project improves forecasts of sea level and waves in complex coastal settings such as fjords and estuaries.
In Portuguese estuaries, FOCCUS seeks to enhance storm surge and extreme water-level forecasting for local hazard management.

Figure 2. Spatial domains of the MOHID and SWAN models, and the locations of the coastal stretches where the applications are being developed: Cruz Quebrada (Oeiras) and Costa da Caparica (Almada).

The applications presented in this deliverable are the result of a co-design process conducted across the consortium, national experts and local stakeholders — from scientific institutes and other Horizon Europe projects to ministries, regulators, wind-farm operators, aquaculture producers and environmental agencies. Each application now forms the baseline for the next phase of FOCCUS, where improvements from coastal observations, land–ocean processes and modelling will be validated, refined and demonstrated.

Together, these developments position FOCCUS to deliver tangible advances in coastal prediction, environmental management, and climate resilience across Europe’s diverse coastal environments. Read the full publication.