Exploration of spatial adaptation strategies for mitigating future coastal flood risk in the Netherlands

The study explores the potential impact of accelerated sea level rise on coastal flood risk in the Netherlands, particularly focusing on the Plan B NL2200 approach. Sea levels are expected to rise faster than initially thought due to factors like Antarctica's melting ice. The Sea Level Rise Knowledge Program in the Netherlands investigates...

Exploring Consensus to Develop Global Standards in Response to Sea Level Rise (SLR): Evaluating the Standardisation Scope of SLR Adaptation Using the Delphi Technique

Anthropogenic climate change has led to irreversible Sea level rise (SLR), underscoring the urgency to implement adaptation measures. With there being a series of challenges to implement SLR adaptation, international standardisation emerges out to be a solution to address these challenges. In this research, an attempt is made to identify SLR...

The living barriers: The architectural adaptation of existing flood barriers on Zeeland’s new biodiversity synergy

The acceleration of the sea level rise will have an immediate global impact, especially on the Delta works. This projection increases the challenge for flood protection strategies and the existing flood barriers that currently lack adaptation for the higher water level. As an opportunity from the negative outcome of climate change and the most...

The Effect of Sea Level Rise on the Operations of the MOSE Barrier in Venice: An Analysis Using the Rosner and an Adapted Framework for Adaptation

Coastal cities and communities are threatened by Sea Level Rise (SLR). Designing adaptations to protect against the rising sea requires a novel approach. With changing conditions, a broader approach considering multiple climate scenarios is required. A city facing an increasing threat from sea levels is Venice, one of the UNESCO world heritage...

Sea level rise adaptation of rubble mound breakwaters: An adaptation pathway approach including sea level rise uncertainty and numerical overtopping modelling

If sea level rises faster than anticipated in the initial design of rubble mound breakwaters, a serious threat is posed to their functionality. To limit wave overtopping, breakwaters must be adapted to the rising sea level and subsequent increase in wave loading due to reduced depth-induced wave breaking. However, the...

A design of the Delta21 sea defence using the adaptive pathway approach

Besides global warming, climate change is expected to result in (among others) an increased number of extreme precipitation events and a rising sea level. In the future, this can be the cause for an increased number of high river discharge events in combination with high water levels on the North Sea, which goes hand in hand with an increased...

Financial feasibility of large-scale adaptation strategies for future SLR in northern Europe: NEED vs dike reinforcement

The effects of climate change are felt all around the world. An increased sea level goes hand in hand with an increased risk of flooding. To combat this, the coastlines must be reinforced to withstand future sea levels. However, repeatedly reinforcing coastlines to keep up with the sea level rise (SLR) could prove extremely costly. An...

Adaptive design of flood defence systems: Incorporating adaptive design methods to cope with sea level rise uncertainty in a system-to-structure approach in the Rhine-Meuse estuary

Climate change is increasingly becoming more impactful on our society. Recent events such as the extreme rainfall in the summer of 2021 in Germany, Belgium and The Netherlands and hurricane Ida in Mississippi (USA), caused severe floodings and damages in these areas. Climate change, in turn, leads to an increase in sea level rise, making flood...

Climate Adaptation of Rubble Mound Breakwaters: A study to the accuracy of overtopping formulas for combination of solutions

Rubble mound structures are often constructed to prevent severe wave damage to ships. By constructing the crest at a certain level, the waves are reduced such that safety is ensured. However, a large increase in sea level rise is expected in the next century due to climate change. Because of this, multiple adaptations might be necessary to meet...

Adaptation of marine locks against sea level rise

There is a lot of uncertainty in climate change developments, and therefore in its consequences. For the flood defence system of the Netherlands, an important consequence of climate change is the sea level rise. Marine locks are large, rigid, and intricate structures, with a required lifespan of at least 100 years, for which often design...

Synchronizing habitat: Risk adaptation by co- evolution of environment & society

The extreme character of human activities and hard infrastructures in combination with the continuous variation of the climate has triggered an unprecedented fast rate of alterations in the environment. Hereafter the anthropogenically magnified climate change is increasing stress on ecosystems; especially interfaces such as coastal areas are in...

Variable Vulnerability: A comparative understanding of different socioeconomic systems - San Francisco Bay region

In this graduation project, I have tried to focus on the aspects of socio-economic development and resilience to sea level rise in the San Francisco Bay region. The comparison is between two cases namely East Palo Alto and Foster City which has a variable difference in their socio–economic the system in terms of the communities that it hosts and...

Coastal Adaptation to Climate Change: A case study in Durban, South Africa

Research done by the IPCC working groups and other organizations has sparked global concern over the possible impacts of climate change and corresponding sea level rise upon coastal communities. In reaction global studies were done (Nicholls et al., 2008, Hanson et al., 2011) to assess the vulnerability of coastal regions. However, most of these...