scholarly journals MODELLING EXTREME WAVE EVENTS (PRESENT AND FUTURE SCENARIOS) IN SOUTHWEST ENGLAND

2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (33) ◽  
pp. 46
Author(s):  
Jose M Horrillo-Caraballo ◽  
Shunqi Pan ◽  
Dominic E Reeve ◽  
Dave Simmonds ◽  
Deborah Greaves ◽  
...  

Coastal areas are vital part of the local economies in terms of population, tourism, trade, industry only to mention a few sectors. As the economy in these coastal areas develops, the risk in which the assets are based will increase as well as the likelihood of extreme events. The European project THESEUS “Innovative coastal technologies for safer European coasts in a changing climate” was conceived with the idea of tackle these and to reduce coastal risks. In this paper we will present a detailed study of the results obtained with the model and how this can affect the area of the Teign estuary under the future climate scenarios and the sea level rise expected. In particular the importance (or otherwise) of the joint extreme occurrence of large waves and high surge.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pau Luque Lozano ◽  
Lluís Gómez-Pujol ◽  
Marta Marcos ◽  
Alejandro Orfila

<p>Sea-level rise induces a permanent loss of land with widespread ecological and economic impacts, most evident in urban and densely populated areas. The eventual coastline retreat combined with the action of waves and storm surges will end in more severe damages over coastal areas. These effects are expected to be particularly significant over islands, where coastal zones represent a relatively larger area vulnerable to marine hazards.</p><p>Managing coastal flood risk at regional scales requires a prioritization of resources and socioeconomic activities along the coast. Stakeholders, such as regional authorities, coastal managers and private companies, need tools that help to address the evaluation of coastal risks and criteria to support decision-makers to clarify priorities and critical sites. For this reason, the regional Government of the Balearic Islands (Spain) in association with the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Environment has launched the Plan for Climate Change Coastal Adaptation. This framework integrates two levels of analysis. The first one relates with the identification of critical areas affected by coastal flooding and erosion under mean sea-level rise scenarios and the quantification of the extent of flooding, including marine extreme events. The second level assesses the impacts on infrastructures and assets from a socioeconomic perspective due to these hazards.</p><p>In this context, this paper quantifies the effects of sea-level rise and marine extreme events caused by storm surges and waves along the coasts of the Balearic Islands (Western Mediterranean Sea) in terms of coastal flooding and potential erosion. Given the regional scale (~1500 km) of this study, the presented methodology adopts a compromise between accuracy, physical representativity and computational costs. We map the projected flooded coastal areas under two mean sea-level rise climate change scenarios, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5. To do so, we apply a corrected bathtub algorithm. Additionally, we compute the impact of extreme storm surges and waves using two 35-year hindcasts consistently forced by mean sea level pressure and surface winds from ERA-Interim reanalysis. Waves have been further propagated towards the nearshore to compute wave setup with higher accuracy. The 100-year return levels of joint storm surges and waves are used to map the spatial extent of flooding in more than 200 sandy beaches around the Balearic Islands by mid and late 21st century, using the hydrodynamical LISFLOOD-FP model and a high resolution (2 m) Digital Elevation Model.</p>


Author(s):  
Alessandra Casu ◽  
Jlenia Zaccagna

Climate scenarios show that Mediterranean areas will be affected by torrential patterns of rain, that can cause difficulties in urban life in coastal areas, mainly due to the draining systems and to the sea-level. Lisbon is on the estuary of Tagus river, which would be probably affected by run-off and by the forecasted rising sea-level. Redesigning its relationship with water, trying to make this urban area more resilient, becomes crucial and asks to study run-off and sea-level rise for 2100 and for intermediate steps, to adapt the urban life and its spaces to the occurring scenarios.


Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 1142
Author(s):  
Juliano Calil ◽  
Geraldine Fauville ◽  
Anna Carolina Muller Queiroz ◽  
Kelly L. Leo ◽  
Alyssa G. Newton Mann ◽  
...  

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.


2017 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 1721
Author(s):  
A. Mavromatidi ◽  
E. Karymbalis

Tourism development in Greece has led to increasing pressure on coastal areas, which makes the study of sensitive coastal areas essential, in order to find appropriate solutions for their shielding. The aim of this study is an estimation of the effects of an anticipated sea level rise for the touristically developed part of Pieria Prefecture, which includes the settlements Paralia, Skala of Katerini, Olympic Beach, Korinos Beach and extends north to the area of the Kitrous saltworks and south to the mouth of Mavroneri river. Therefore the Coastal Vulnerability Index (CVI) is applied, in an attempt to determine the susceptible parts to the potential sea level rise. CVI depends on the following parameters: (a) coastal geomorphology, (b) coastal slope, (c) shoreline erosion/accretion rate, (d) relative sea-level rise fluctuations, (e) mean tidal range and (f) mean significant wave height. The classification of the coast, which is of particular socio-economic significance since it hosts urbanized areas, into five CVI classes (from very low vulnerability to very high vulnerability), showed that 43.6% of the entire coastline is of very high vulnerability. 


2012 ◽  
Vol 115 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 537-558 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jun Wang ◽  
Wei Gao ◽  
Shiyuan Xu ◽  
Lizhong Yu

2016 ◽  
Vol 75 (sp1) ◽  
pp. 1067-1071 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrien Crapoulet ◽  
Arnaud Héquette ◽  
Franck Levoy ◽  
Patrice Bretel

Author(s):  
Alejandra R. Enríquez ◽  
Marta Marcos ◽  
Amaya Álvarez-Ellacuría ◽  
Alejandro Orfila ◽  
Damià Gomis

Abstract. In this work we assess the impacts in reshaping coastlines as a result of sea level rise and changes in wave climate. The methodology proposed combines the SWAN and SWASH wave models to resolve the wave processes from deep waters up to the swash zone in two micro-tidal sandy beaches in Mallorca Island, Western Mediterranean. In a first step, the modelling approach is validated with observations from wave gauges and from the shoreline inferred from video monitoring stations, showing a good agreement between them. Afterwards, the modelling setup is applied to the 21st century sea level and wave projections under two different climate scenarios, RCP45 and RCP85. Sea level projections were retrieved from state of the art regional estimates, while wave projections were obtained from regional climate models. Changes in the coastline are explored under mean and extreme wave conditions. Our results indicate that the studied beaches would suffer a coastal retreat between 7 and up to 50 m, equivalent to half of the present-day aerial beach surface, under the climate scenarios considered.


Ocean Science ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Rasquin ◽  
Rita Seiffert ◽  
Benno Wachler ◽  
Norbert Winkel

Abstract. Due to climate change an accelerated mean sea level rise is expected. One key question for the development of adaptation measures is how mean sea level rise affects tidal dynamics in shelf seas such as the North Sea. Owing to its low-lying coastal areas, the German Bight (located in the southeast of the North Sea) will be especially affected. Numerical hydrodynamic models help to understand how mean sea level rise changes tidal dynamics. Models cannot adequately represent all processes in overall detail. One limiting factor is the resolution of the model grid. In this study we investigate which role the representation of the coastal bathymetry plays when analysing the response of tidal dynamics to mean sea level rise. Using a shelf model including the whole North Sea and a high-resolution hydrodynamic model of the German Bight we investigate the changes in M2 amplitude due to a mean sea level rise of 0.8 and 10 m. The shelf model and the German Bight Model react in different ways. In the simulations with a mean sea level rise of 0.8 m the M2 amplitude in the shelf model generally increases in the region of the German Bight. In contrast, the M2 amplitude in the German Bight Model increases only in some coastal areas and decreases in the northern part of the German Bight. In the simulations with a mean sea level rise of 10 m the M2 amplitude increases in both models with largely similar spatial patterns. In two case studies we adjust the German Bight Model in order to more closely resemble the shelf model. We find that a different resolution of the bathymetry results in different energy dissipation changes in response to mean sea level rise. Our results show that the resolution of the bathymetry especially in flat intertidal areas plays a crucial role for modelling the impact of mean sea level rise.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joao Catalao ◽  
Durairaju Raju ◽  
Giovanni Nico

Global mean sea level rise associated with global warming has a major impact on coastal areas and represents one of the significant natural hazards. The Asia-Pacific region, which has the highest concentration of human population in the world, represents one of the larger areas on Earth being threatened by the rise of sea level. Recent studies indicate a global sea level of 3.2 mm/yr as measured from 20 years of satellite altimetry. The combined effect of sea level rise and local land subsidence, can be overwhelming for coastal areas. The Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) interferometry technique is used to process a time series of TerraSAR-X images and estimate the land subsidence in the urban area of Singapore. Interferometric SAR (InSAR) measurements are merged to the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 4.5 and RCP 8.5 sea-level rise scenarios to identify projected inundated areas and provide a map of flood vulnerability. Subsiding rates larger than 5 mm/year are found near the shore on the low flat land, associated to areas recently reclaimed or built. The projected flooded map of Singapore are provided for different sea-level rise scenarios. In this study, we show that local land subsidence can increase the flood vulnerability caused by sea level rise by 2100 projections. This can represent an increase of 25% in the flood area in the central area of Singapore for the RCP4.5 scenario.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Van Well ◽  
Anette Björlin ◽  
Per Danielsson ◽  
Godefroid Godefroid Ndayikengurukiye ◽  
Gunnel Göransson

<p>Sea level rise poses profound challenges within current municipal and regional governance since it requires unusually long planning horizons, is surrounded by great uncertainties, and gives rise to novel ethical challenges. Adaptation to climate change is fundamentally an ethical issue because the aim of any proposed adaptation measure is to protect that which is valued in society. One of the most salient ethical issues discussed in the adaptation literature relates to the distribution of climate related risks, vulnerabilities and benefits across populations and over time. Raising sea-walls is typically associated with high costs and potentially negative ecological impacts as well as substantial equity concerns; managed retreat or realignment often causes problems related to property rights; and migration out of low-lying areas can involve the loss of sense and cultural identity and impact on receiving communities.</p><p>How can the soft and ethical dimensions of rising mean sea levels be characterized and how can their consequences be mapped? To help municipalities to understand the values and ethics attached to measures to deal with long-term rising sea levels in southern Sweden, we are developing a methodology of soft or ethical values to complement to GIS-mapping of coastal vulnerability based on coastal characteristics and socio-economic factors.</p><p>Rather than determining these values a priori, they are being discerned through workshops with relevant stakeholders and in interviews with citizens residing in and utilizing the coastal areas. The methodology attempts to determine the place-based of values within coastal communities with a focus on “whose” values, “what” values, and the long-term or short-term nature of values. It builds on an analytical framework developed to acquire information on the behavior, knowledge, perception and feelings of people living, working and enjoying the coastal areas.  In turn this stakeholder-based information is used to co-create “story maps” as tools to communicate complicated vulnerability analyses, highlight the ethical dimensions of various adaptation measures, raise awareness and aid decisionmakers in taking uncomfortable decisions to “wicked” planning problems around the negative effects of sea level rise, coastal erosion and urban flooding.</p><p>This paper presents the methodological development of the task as well as the results the study in four Swedish municipalities. The representation of the “soft” and ethical values provides an opportunity to help clarify these values to policymakers and increase resilience to rising sea levels.</p>


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