scholarly journals Coastal Flooding and Erosion under a Changing Climate: Implications at a Low-Lying Coast (Ebro Delta)

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert Grases ◽  
Vicente Gracia ◽  
Manuel García-León ◽  
Jue Lin-Ye ◽  
Joan Pau Sierra
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sediment Transport ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Anthropogenic Activities ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Wave Model ◽  
Ebro Delta ◽  
Coastal Hazards ◽  
Sand Transport ◽  
Storm Waves

Episodic coastal hazards associated to sea storms are responsible for sudden and intense changes in coastal morphology. Climate change and local anthropogenic activities such as river regulation and urban growth are raising risk levels in coastal hotspots, like low-lying areas of river deltas. This urges to revise present management strategies to guarantee their future sustainability, demanding a detailed diagnostic of the hazard evolution. In this paper, flooding and erosion under current and future conditions have been assessed at local scale at the urban area of Riumar, a touristic enclave placed at the Ebro Delta (Spain). Process-based models have been used to address the interaction between beach morphology and storm waves, as well as the influence of coastal environment complexity. Storm waves have been propagated with SWAN wave model and have provided the forcings for XBeach, a 2DH hydro-morphodynamic model. Results show that future trends in sea level rise and wave forcing produce non-linear variations of the flooded area and the volume of mobilized sediment resulting from marine storms. In particular, the balance between flooding and sediment transport will shift depending on the relative sea level. Wave induced flooding and long-shore sand transport seem to be diminished in the future, whereas static sea level flooding and cross-shore sediment transport are exacerbated. Therefore, the characterization of tipping points in the coastal response can help to develop robust and adaptive plans to manage climate change impact in sandy wave dominated coasts with a low-lying hinterland and a complex shoreline morphology.

scholarly journals Using Virtual Reality in Sea Level Rise Planning and Community Engagement—An Overview

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 1142
Author(s):  
Juliano Calil ◽  
Geraldine Fauville ◽  
Anna Carolina Muller Queiroz ◽  
Kelly L. Leo ◽  
Alyssa G. Newton Mann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Community Outreach ◽  
Coastal Communities ◽  
Coastal Hazards ◽  
Multidisciplinary Teams ◽  
Simple Task ◽  
Coastal Risks

As coastal communities around the globe contend with the impacts of climate change including coastal hazards such as sea level rise and more frequent coastal storms, educating stakeholders and the general public has become essential in order to adapt to and mitigate these risks. Communicating SLR and other coastal risks is not a simple task. First, SLR is a phenomenon that is abstract as it is physically distant from many people; second, the rise of the sea is a slow and temporally distant process which makes this issue psychologically distant from our everyday life. Virtual reality (VR) simulations may offer a way to overcome some of these challenges, enabling users to learn key principles related to climate change and coastal risks in an immersive, interactive, and safe learning environment. This article first presents the literature on environmental issues communication and engagement; second, it introduces VR technology evolution and expands the discussion on VR application for environmental literacy. We then provide an account of how three coastal communities have used VR experiences developed by multidisciplinary teams—including residents—to support communication and community outreach focused on SLR and discuss their implications.

scholarly journals Quantifying Uncertainty in Exposure to Coastal Hazards Associated with Both Climate Change and Adaptation Strategies: A U.S. Pacific Northwest Alternative Coastal Futures Analysis

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 545
Author(s):  
Alexis K. Mills ◽  
Peter Ruggiero ◽  
John P. Bolte ◽  
Katherine A. Serafin ◽  
Eva Lipiec
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Performance Metrics ◽  
Coastal Flooding ◽  
Water Levels ◽  
Coastal Hazards ◽  
Policy Decisions ◽  
Management Decisions ◽  
Quantifying Uncertainty

Coastal communities face heightened risk to coastal flooding and erosion hazards due to sea-level rise, changing storminess patterns, and evolving human development pressures. Incorporating uncertainty associated with both climate change and the range of possible adaptation measures is essential for projecting the evolving exposure to coastal flooding and erosion, as well as associated community vulnerability through time. A spatially explicit agent-based modeling platform, that provides a scenario-based framework for examining interactions between human and natural systems across a landscape, was used in Tillamook County, OR (USA) to explore strategies that may reduce exposure to coastal hazards within the context of climate change. Probabilistic simulations of extreme water levels were used to assess the impacts of variable projections of sea-level rise and storminess both as individual climate drivers and under a range of integrated climate change scenarios through the end of the century. Additionally, policy drivers, modeled both as individual management decisions and as policies integrated within adaptation scenarios, captured variability in possible human response to increased hazards risk. The relative contribution of variability and uncertainty from both climate change and policy decisions was quantified using three stakeholder relevant landscape performance metrics related to flooding, erosion, and recreational beach accessibility. In general, policy decisions introduced greater variability and uncertainty to the impacts of coastal hazards than climate change uncertainty. Quantifying uncertainty across a suite of coproduced performance metrics can help determine the relative impact of management decisions on the adaptive capacity of communities under future climate scenarios.

Assessment and Adaptation to Climate Change-Related Flood Risks

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brenden Jongman ◽  
Hessel C. Winsemius ◽  
Stuart A. Fraser ◽  
Sanne Muis ◽  
Philip J. Ward
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Risk Management ◽  
Population Growth ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Flood Risk ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Inundation Depth ◽  
Risk Management Strategies ◽  
Flood Losses

The flooding of rivers and coastlines is the most frequent and damaging of all natural hazards. Between 1980 and 2016, total direct damages exceeded $1.6 trillion, and at least 225,000 people lost their lives. Recent events causing major economic losses include the 2011 river flooding in Thailand ($40 billion) and the 2013 coastal floods in the United States caused by Hurricane Sandy (over $50 billion). Flooding also triggers great humanitarian challenges. The 2015 Malawi floods were the worst in the country’s history and were followed by food shortage across large parts of the country. Flood losses are increasing rapidly in some world regions, driven by economic development in floodplains and increases in the frequency of extreme precipitation events and global sea level due to climate change. The largest increase in flood losses is seen in low-income countries, where population growth is rapid and many cities are expanding quickly. At the same time, evidence shows that adaptation to flood risk is already happening, and a large proportion of losses can be contained successfully by effective risk management strategies. Such risk management strategies may include floodplain zoning, construction and maintenance of flood defenses, reforestation of land draining into rivers, and use of early warning systems. To reduce risk effectively, it is important to know the location and impact of potential floods under current and future social and environmental conditions. In a risk assessment, models can be used to map the flow of water over land after an intense rainfall event or storm surge (the hazard). Modeled for many different potential events, this provides estimates of potential inundation depth in flood-prone areas. Such maps can be constructed for various scenarios of climate change based on specific changes in rainfall, temperature, and sea level. To assess the impact of the modeled hazard (e.g., cost of damage or lives lost), the potential exposure (including buildings, population, and infrastructure) must be mapped using land-use and population density data and construction information. Population growth and urban expansion can be simulated by increasing the density or extent of the urban area in the model. The effects of floods on people and different types of buildings and infrastructure are determined using a vulnerability function. This indicates the damage expected to occur to a structure or group of people as a function of flood intensity (e.g., inundation depth and flow velocity). Potential adaptation measures such as land-use change or new flood defenses can be included in the model in order to understand how effective they may be in reducing flood risk. This way, risk assessments can demonstrate the possible approaches available to policymakers to build a less risky future.

scholarly journals Challenges in Chennai City to Cope with Changing Climate

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-43
Author(s):  
Anushiya Jeganathan ◽  
Ramachandran Andimuthu ◽  
Palanivelu Kandasamy
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Coastal Hazards ◽  
Risk Level ◽  
Rapid Urbanization ◽  
Changing Climate ◽  
Green Cover ◽  
Chennai City

Cities are dynamic systems resulting from the complex interaction of various socio-ecological and environmental developments. Climate change disproportionately affects cities mostly located in climate-sensitive areas; thus, these urban systems are the most critical in modern societies under changing climate scenarios, uncertain disruptions, and urban inhabitants' daily lives. It is essential to analyze the challenges in the metropolitan area through the lens of climate change. The present work analyses the challenges in Chennai, a coastal city in India and one of the chief industrial growth canters in Indian and South Asian region. The challenges are analyzed through the city’s system analysis via land use, green cover, population, and coastal hazards. Land use and green cover changes are studied through satellite images using ArcGIS and assessing coastal risks due to sea-level rise through GIS-based inundation model. There are drastic changes in land-use patterns; the green cover had reduced much, including agricultural and forest cover due to rapid urbanization. The land use has changed to 59.6% of the reduction in agriculture land, nearly 40% reduction in forest land, and 47% of the wetland over time. The observed mean sea level trend for Chennai is + 0.55 mm/year from 1916 to 2015 and the area of 21.75 sq. km is under the threat of inundation to 0.5m sea-level rise. The population growth, drastic changes in land use pattern, green cover reduction, and inundation due to sea-level rise increase the city's risks to climate change. There is a need to ensure that future land-use developments do not worsen the current climate risk level, either through influencing the hazards themselves or affecting the urban system's future vulnerability and adaptive capacity. The study also urges the zone level adaptation strategies to ensure the resilience of the city.

scholarly journals Quantitative Coastal Resilience Assessment Framework under Climate Change and Sea Level Rise

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tao Wu
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Coastal Hazards ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Assessment Framework ◽  
Coastal Resilience ◽  
Resilience Assessment

Accompanied by increasing population growth and urban sprawl, most coastal cities are unprecedentedly vulnerable to climate change and its impacts, such as sea level rise, increasing extreme storm events, and coastal flooding. Coastal resilience and sustainable development are antidotes to vulnerability; they aim to enhance the adaptive capability of absorbing disturbances and resisting uncertainty. This study explores building a quantitative assessment framework to measure resilience and provide an objective and comparable method to understand the strengths and weaknesses in a given region. The proposed 25 resilience indicators incorporate the aspects of essential livelihood protection, infrastructure and natural resource maintenance, emergency facilities and institutions, floodplain management regulations, and adaptive planning process. Each indicator is assigned the resilience quality that includes robustness, resourcefulness, redundancy, and rapidity. The aggregated resilience quality scoring reflects the systematic performance of the city to cope with the coastal hazards. The innovative part of this framework is combining hazard mitigation measures, climate adaptation strategies, and sustainable development goals together to achieve a comprehensive assessment method. In the case of New Haven, the resilience assessment is taken as a practical monitoring tool and decision-making support.

scholarly journals Effect of Climate Change on Aquatic Ecosystem and Production of Fisheries

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Satarupa Ghosh ◽  
Snigdha Chatterjee ◽  
Ghora Shiva Prasad ◽  
Prasanna Pal
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Anthropogenic Activities ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Fish Production ◽  
Common People ◽  
Marine System ◽  
The Common

The exploitation of nature for decades due to several anthropogenic activities has changed the climatic conditions worldwide. The environment has been polluted with an increase of greenhouse gases. The major consequences are global warming, cyclone, an increase in sea level, etc. It has a clear negative impact on the natural environment including aquatic ones. As a result, production of fish in the aquaculture system and marine system is greatly affected. Marine ecosystems like coral reefs are also destroyed. Decreased fish production has also affected the livelihood and economic condition of the fish farmers. So, corrective measures should be taken to reduce the climate changes for minimizing its effects on fish production. Using more eco-friendly substances, planting more trees, and preserving our nature are some steps to be taken. Awareness should also be generated among the common people.

scholarly journals Hydro- and Morphodynamic Impacts of Sea Level Rise: The Minho Estuary Case Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 441
Author(s):  
Willian Melo ◽  
José Pinho ◽  
Isabel Iglesias ◽  
Ana Bio ◽  
Paulo Avilez-Valente ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sediment Transport ◽  
Numerical Modelling ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Return Period ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
River Mouth ◽  
Rcp 8.5 ◽  
Minho Estuary

The understanding and anticipating of climate change impacts is one of the greatest challenges for humanity. It is already known that, until the end of the 21st century, the mean sea level (MSL) will rise at a global scale, but its effects at the local scale need to be further analyzed. In this context, a numerical modelling tool and a methodological approach for the river Minho estuary (NW of the Iberian Peninsula) are presented, to predict possible consequences of local MSL rise, considering the greenhouse emission scenarios RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5. Hydrodynamic and morphodynamic impacts were analyzed considering several driving factors, such as tides, sea level rise, storm surge, wave set-up, and different river flood peak discharges, taking into account their probabilities of occurrence. The model was calibrated using in-situ data and a data assimilation tool, the OpenDA, which automates this process, allowing to reach reliable results in a considerably short time when compared with traditional techniques. The results forecast that the predicted MSL rise will reduce the flow velocity magnitude and the sediment transport into the coastal platform but will aggravate the inundation risks along the estuarine banks. In the worst scenario (RCP 8.5) the water level near the river mouth of the estuary is expected to rise 0.20 m for 50 years return period ocean water rising, and 0.60 m for 100 years return period. It was also possible to identify that floods are the most important driver for the sediment transport along the estuary, while the tide effect in the morphodynamics is restricted to the downstream estuarine region. This work demonstrated the importance of the numerical modelling tools to better understand the effects of climate change at local scales through the representation of the estuarine hydrodynamic pattern evolution for future climate scenarios.

scholarly journals Climate Change Induced Coastline Change Adjacent to Small Tidal Inlets

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trang Minh Duong
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Climate Scenario ◽  
Ocean Waves ◽  
Adaptation Strategies ◽  
Coastal Hazards ◽  
Tidal Inlets

The many thousands of small tidal inlets (STIs), and their adjacent coastlines, are almost certain to be affected by climate change in multiple ways, due to their behaviour being closely linked to both oceanic and terrestrial drivers such as riverflow, sea level, and ocean waves, all which are projected to change over the 21st century. Development of risk informed adaptation strategies for these highly utilized and inhabited inlet-interrupted coast zones requires projections of both alongshore average coastline recession and alongshore variability in coastline position along the coast under future forcing conditions, the latter being an aspect that has not received much attention to date. Here, a combination of a process-based morphodynamic model (Delft3D) and the reduced complexity coastline model (SMIC), concurrently forced with tides, waves, riverflows, and sea level rise, is used to investigate both of these phenomena at STI-interrupted coasts. The models are here applied to schematised conditions representing two systems in Sri Lanka, representing two of the three main Types of STIs: Negombo lagoon – permanently open, locationally stable inlet (Type 1), and Kalutara lagoon – permanently open, alongshore migrating inlet (Type 2). Results indicate that, under a high emissions climate scenario following RCP 8.5, by end-century, the coastline adjacent to the Type 1 STI may experience an alongshore average recession as large as 200 m, and that the alongshore variability in coastline position may be up to twice that at present. The Type 2 STI is projected to experience an alongshore average coastline recession of about 120 m, and up to a 75% increase in alongshore variability in coastline position by end-century, relative to the present. Thus, both the alongshore average coastline recession and the increase in the alongshore variability in coastline position are greater at the Type 1 STI, compared to at the Type 2 STI. These findings highlight the importance of accounting for both alongshore average coastline recession and future changes in alongshore variability in coastline position when assessing coastal hazards and risk on inlet-interrupted coasts to adequately inform climate adaptation strategies.

scholarly journals A Computational Investigation of Storm Impacts on Estuary Morphodynamics

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (12) ◽  
pp. 421
Author(s):  
Yunzhu Yin ◽  
Harshinie Karunarathna ◽  
Dominic E. Reeve
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Wave Model ◽  
Extreme Weather Events ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Mean Sea Level ◽  
Morphodynamic Modelling ◽  
Case Study Site ◽  
The Uk

Global climate change drives sea level rise and changes to extreme weather events, which can affect morphodynamics of coastal and estuary systems around the world. In this paper, a 2D process-based numerical model is used to investigate the combined effects of future mean sea level and storm climate variabilities on morphological change of an estuary. Morphodynamically complex, meso-tidal Deben Estuary, located in the Suffolk at the east coast of the UK is selected as our case study site. This estuary has experienced very dynamic behaviors in history thus it might be sensitive to the future climate change. A statistical analysis of future storms around this area, derived from a global wave model, has shown a slight increase of storm wave heights and storm occurrences around the estuary in future as a result of global climate variations under medium emission scenario. By using a process-based model and by combining the forecast ‘end-of-century’ mean sea level with statistically derived storm conditions using projected storms over a time slice between 2075–2099, we determined hydrodynamic forcing for future morphodynamic modelling scenarios. It is found that the effect of increased sea level combined with future storms can significantly alter the current prevailing morphodynamic regime of the Deben Estuary thus driving it into a less stable system. It is also found that storm waves can be very significant to morphodynamic evolution of this tide-dominated estuary.

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