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The overall objective of the SANDPIT project is to develop reliable prediction techniques and guidelines to better understand, simulate and predict the morhological behaviour of large-scale sand mining pits/areas and the associated sand transport processes at the middle and lower (offshore) shoreface and also in the surrounding coastal zone. The SANDPIT-project is a project in the 5th framework of the EU Community Research Program (contract number EVK3-CT-2001-00056).

The emphasis is on the role of large-scale offshore sand mining pits and areas, but the morphological behaviour of dredged channels and trenches for navigation, pipelines and telecom-cables will also be addressed. The potential use of large-scale sand banks and shoals for sand mining will also be studied. Furthermore, the ecological effects of sand mining and dredging will be evaluated and summarised.

Research on sand transport, focussing on the middle and lower shoreface, will be a key topic within the SANDPIT project, because this is one of the key problems. Existing data bases on hydrodynamic, sand transport and morphologic processes will be extended by the addition of data sets from existing and new experiments. New experiments on sand transport and morphology will be performed in large scale laboratory facilities (wave tank and wave tunnel). A new large-scale sand pit experiment (test pit) will be carried out in the North Sea to produce field data sets.

Existing research models (1 Dimensional Vertical and 2 Dimensional Horizontal-Vertical) of sand transport will be improved based on the field and laboratory data. Practical sand transport models will be improved based on the available data and the results of research models for use in 2Dimensional-Horizontal and 3Dimensional morphodynamic models.

The field and laboratory data sets will be used to calibrate and to validate morphodynamic models; the morphodynamic models will be used to determine the optimum location (minimum effect on coastline) and dimensions and the morphodynamic behaviour of sand mining pits/areas, other pits/channels (navigation; pipelines, cables, offshore structures) and sand banks/shoals.