Non-stationary multivariate extreme events in mangrove environments: A global impact assessment

Mangrove is a coastal vegetation type primarily located in the tropical regions between 5 North and 5 South. This coastal vegetation is capable of reducing the force of incoming waves. This is a result of the obstruction created by the roots, stems and canopies against waves to propagate through. Because of this capability, mangrove vegetation...

Sustainable and Resilient Coastal Cities (SARCC): Interdisciplinary Flood Protection Strategies for Southend-on-Sea (UK)

In a world influenced by climate change and consequently sea-level rise, extreme floods are expected to become more frequent in the future, representing a serious threat for riverine and coastal settlements. Therefore, flood protection is a large component of climate adaptation and should be closely related to other measures of climate...

Integrated urban flood design in the United States and the Netherlands

Spatial design integrates social, cultural, economic, and political perspectives with natural site conditions and man-made construction to plan for sustainable urban development. The current flood-risk-related challenges induced by climate change place pressure on designing cities in which both natural and man-made conditions can be imbalanced....

Participatory value evaluation for the evaluation of flood protection schemes

Participatory Value Evaluation (PVE) is a new survey method which elicits citizens' preferences over the allocation of public budgets as well as their private income. In a PVE, citizens are asked to choose the best portfolio of projects given a governmental and a private budget constraint. First, this paper aligns PVE with the traditional Kaldor...

Assessing the functional performance of the Meuse river: The impact of bed developments and an altering discharge regime on future river functioning

The Meuse river facilitates important socio-economic functions. In the light of Integrated River Management (IRM), the question rises whether these functions can be facilitated in future decades (until 2050) as well. The riverbed is expected to degrade over the coming decades, just like in the past century. On top of that, the discharge regime...

Growing Smaller: Optimizing productivity within an intersectural circular system to relieve the pressure on land

The province of South-Holland is located in a delta, where the Netherlands have been changing the landscape for centuries to keep out the water and create the productive, highly urbanised and well connected landscape it is now. Due to climate change, the water system brings about an increasing pressure in both the rivers as well as the sea. In...

Conceptual design of the Valmeer's pump storage station of the DELTA21 plan

It is widely known that climate change will cause sea level rise and larger river discharges in the close future (because more precipitation during a shorter amount of time will happen). In the Netherlands, the delta works were developed to protect the hinterland from sea-water during storm surge situations. The storm surge...

The sensitivity of a dike-marsh system to sea-level rise-a model-based exploration

Integrating natural components in flood defence infrastructure can add resilience to sea-level rise. Natural foreshores can keep pace with sea-level rise by accumulating sediment and attenuate waves before reaching the adjacent flood defences. In this study we address how natural foreshores affect the future need for dike heightening. A...

Flood Protection Using Multiple Lines of Dikes: A Case Study of the Twin Dike Eemshaven-Delfzijl Project

The Twin Dike project is an innovative concept to achieve the required flood safety while being able to preserve valuable areas. A lower, second dike is constructed behind the original existing dike. The original dike is only being strengthened to a minimal extent. The general idea behind this project is to more efficiently use the area near the...

Assessing the capacity of adaptive policy pathways to adapt on time by mapping trigger values to their outcomes

Climate change raises serious concerns for policymakers that want to ensure the success of long-term policies. To guarantee satisfactory decisions in the face of deep uncertainties, adaptive policy pathways might be used. Adaptive policy pathways are designed to take actions according to how the future will actually unfold. In adaptive...

Balancing Costs and Benefits in Selecting New Information: Efficient Monitoring Using Deterministic Hydro-economic Models

Uncertainty reduces reliability and performance of water system operations. A decision-maker can take action, accepting the present uncertainty and facing its risks, or reduce uncertainty by first obtaining additional information. Information, however, comes at a cost. The decision-maker must therefore efficiently use his/her resources,...

Working Waterfront Newtown Creek - Adaptive multi-layer flood protection on brownfield opportunity areas

For 400 years New York has a turbulent interaction with its surrounding waters. It embraced, tamed, neglected and rediscovered the waterfront which made its greatness possible. Hurricane Sandy brought in a new complexity for New York and its relationship with the waterfront. The storm reminded the city where it is located and paid a high price...