The Harbour, Coastal and Offshore Engineering discipline was founded in 1952 by Yan Kai who was academician on both Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering. In 1981, Coastal Engineering was granted as one of the first specialities leading to Doctor and Master degrees, and Offshore Engineering was approved as one of the first specialities leading to Master degree. In 1990, Harbour and Waterway Engineering became the only Doctoral program among the homogeneous subjects in China and became a key discipline of Jiangsu later in 1994. In 1996, Coastal Engineering became a key discipline of Ministry of Water Resources and was chosen as a key discipline of national "211 Project" in 1997. The set of "Cheung Kong Scholars Programme" Distinguished Professor position was approved in 2000.
With “attaching equal importance to both harbour and waterway engineerings, giving considerations to both the sea and the river” as its distinctive feature, a wide-range disciplinary system has been formed by combing structures and dynamics, the solid and the fluid. The major researches are on the planning of harbour, coastal and offshore projects, hydrodynamic environment and integrated management of estuaries and coasts, waterway erosion-deposition evolution and prevent and control measures, structures and foundations of harbour and waterway projects, technology economics of harbour and coastal engineering.
With Liang Yingchen (a join-appointed academician on the Chinese Academy of Engineering) as consultant, the disciplinary team has 66 professionals, among whom there are 17 professors, 22 associate professors, 10 doctoral supervisors, 23 master supervisors, 14 Doctors and 20 Masters. Altogether, the disciplinary team is a combination of the old, the middle-aged and the young with strong academic atmosphere.
There is experiment center of harbour, waterway and coastal engineering, experiment hall of estuaries and coasts, multi-directional irregular wave tank and comprehensive experiment hall equipped with two-way circular tank, irregular wave tank, two-way variable slope tank and broad band ADCP, high resolution GPS and GPR. Adhere to the tradition of combing theory with practice, 7 national important projects (National Coastal Zone and Tidal Wetland Resources Investigation, Layout Scheme of Harbour and Intake and Outlet of the Nuclear Power Station in Daya Bay, Deepwater Channel Regulation of the Yangtze River Estuary, Waterway Regulation of the Pearl River Delta etc.), 32 projects supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China and Science and Technique Foundation have been carried out. 53 national, ministerial and provincial prizes have been won among which there are 2 first prize of National Awards for Science and Technology (NAST), 1 second prize of NAST, 2 third prize of NAST, 48 ministerial and provincial prizes for scientific and technological achievements. In recent 5 years, 431 scientific papers have been published (including 19 SCI papers, 2 EI papers and 1 ISTP papers), 18 Academic Monographs (e.g., China Coastal Engineering) and textbooks have been published. The total funding of the 64 current scientific projects including projects supported by National Natural Science Funds for Key Program and Distinguished Young Scholar is 12 million Yuan。
Based on current experiences and achievements, the future development of the discipline will be strengthening basic theory researches, insisting on the combination of basic theory and practice, encouraging the construction of experimental bases and project centers, undertaking more national important engineering and scientific projects. More excellent doctoral dissertations and Master's thesis are expected, more and better high-level talents for engineering technology will be cultivated. This discipline will be a training base for high-level talents, a scientific research base for key technologies of important projects, national and international science communication center and reach the international advanced level in the whole.
