Coastal flood alleviation through management interventions under changing climate conditions
International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment
ISSN: 1759-5908
Article publication date: 29 November 2019
Issue publication date: 13 March 2020
Abstract
Purpose
Coastal flooding has disastrous consequences on people, infrastructure, properties and the environment. Increasing flood risk as a result of global climate change is a significant concern both within the UK and globally. To counter any potential increase in future flooding, a range of potential management options are being considered. This study aims to explore future coastal management practice for flood alleviation, incorporating the influence of climate change.
Design/methodology/approach
The Taf estuary in South West Wales, a macro-tidal estuary which has a history of coastal flooding, was chosen as the case study in this paper to investigate the impact of coastal management interventions such as construction of hard defences, managed realignment or altering land use of affiliated ecosystems such as salt marshes on the complex hydrodynamics and hence flooding of the surrounding areas of the estuary. The study was carried out using a numerical hydrodynamic model of the Taf estuary, developed using the process-based Delft3D modelling software.
Findings
The role of the selected management interventions on coastal flooding was investigated using an extreme storm condition, both with and without the impact of future sea level rise. The results highlight the scale of the effect of sea level rise, with the selected management interventions revealing that minimising the increase in flooding in future requires careful consideration of the available options.
Originality/value
This paper explores the highlighted role of coastal management practice in future with the influence of climate change to study how effective alternative methods can be for flood alleviation.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research formed part of the Valuing Nature Programme (valuing-nature.net) which is funded by the Natural Environment Research Council, the Economic and Social Research Council, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. This research was supported by the UK Research Councils under Natural Environment Research Council award NE/N013573/1, Title CoastWEB: Valuing the contribution which COASTal habitats make to human health and WEllBeing, with a focus on the alleviation of natural hazards. WB acknowledges the support of the Supercomputing Wales project, which is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) via Welsh Government. CEFAS and the UK Met Office are acknowledged for providing wave and wind data. The paper contains public sector information, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0, from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.
Citation
Bennett, W.G. and Karunarathna, H. (2019), "Coastal flood alleviation through management interventions under changing climate conditions", International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment, Vol. 11 No. 2, pp. 187-203. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJDRBE-07-2019-0042
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited