The Coastal Reaserch Station (CRS) in Lubiatowo, located about 75 km NW of Gdańsk, is a field laboratory of the Institute of Hydro-Engineering of the Polish Academy of Science (IBW PAN). The station houses both stationary and portable equipment for measurements and monitoring of waves, currant, sediment transport, beach and shore topography and factors of coastal dynamics.
Existence of CRS Lubiatowo and the multi-aspect field investigations carried out in various time-spatial scales provide huge amount of data and observations of the Baltic coastal zone. This knowledge, obtained in undisturbed natural conditions, facilitates verification of many theoretical considerations and helps to understand complicated coastal physics.
At the coastal zone built of sandy sediments, the hydrodynamic phenomena, together with human activities (influence of coastal structures) cause distinct response of the littoral system. The sea bed evolves to achieve the state equilibrium with respect to predominating wave-current conditions.
The highest wave measured 4.5 km offshore CRS Lubiatowo attained 7.57 m while the most intensive nearshore wave-driven currents have velocities of 1.5 m/s.
About 60-70% of the Polish coast is eroded, whit a shoreline retreat of 0.5-0.9 m/year. Recently observed climatic changes cause increase in intensity and frequency of severe storms, as well as accelerated sea level rise. These effects are reasons for high coastal erosion rate. Optimisation of shore protection measures depends on detailed identification and understanding of coastal physical processes. This requires extensive theoretical and experimental investigations.