The science of coastal flooding
An estimated 40 per cent of the world’s population lives within 100 kilometers of the coast. Now, with our climate rapidly changing, many of those people are now facing a new threat – the ocean.
“Several coastal areas around the world are impacted by coastal floods, from hurricanes, typhoons, cyclones and extreme weather events. Of course, many places are also experiencing sea level rise, which brings with it increased tidal flooding risk,” says Professor Celso Ferreira, who runs the Flood Hazards Research Lab at George Mason University in Virginia, USA. “You’re getting flooded more often than you used to. Like it or not, it’s the new reality.”
Among other things, Ferreira’s research focuses on how we can better manage our coastlines to reduce the risk of flooding.
Traditionally, coastal flooding has been kept at bay with hard defenses – sea walls, rock armor and breakwaters, for example. However, they are costly to build and maintain, are typically unsightly, and, more often than not, cause other problems, such as increasing the rate of coastal erosion. As an alternative, many management agencies and organizations are looking at natural coastal defenses.
“The idea is to take advantage of nature’s properties and characteristics to try to protect people and infrastructure from flooding, and maybe even protect nature itself from the effects of sea level rise and bigger storms,” Ferreira explains.
Natural flood defenses come in many different forms, and often with a few bonuses such as acting as a carbon sink and providing natural habitat that has often been destroyed to make way for development. Much of Ferreira’s research revolves around the marsh.
A marsh’s ability to act as a natural defense depends on a range of different factors, but in many cases we don’t have enough information to determine exactly how they will perform.
“If we’re going to adopt these kinds of strategies as a part of a flood defense infrastructure, we need to know how much protection we get from them,” Ferreira says…
This story can be read in full at Nortek.
