Coastal cities increasingly face compound flooding risks due to sea-level rise and intensifying storms. This study systematically evaluates the synergistic regulation of coastal hydrodynamics by mangrove vegetation and intertidal topography as a nature-based solution (NbS) for coastal defense. Based on the Delft3D Flexible Mesh (FM) system, we simulate tidal and storm surge scenarios in two contrasting shorelines in Shenzhen, China, the naturally evolved Xiwan Mangrove Park and the engineered Bao'an Airport coastline. Results show that intertidal topography plays a dominant role in attenuating flow velocity, while mangrove vegetation becomes the primary factor in reducing peak water levels during extreme events. A functional shift in mitigation zones occurs, from mid and low tidal flats under tidal conditions to high flats during storm surges, driven by increased inundation and canopy engagement. Additionally, a clear design threshold of 600 m planting width is identified, beyond which additional vegetation provides diminishing returns due to the complete submergence of mangrove vegetation. These findings underscore the complementary roles of topography and vegetation and offer actionable guidance for optimizing NbS strategies in site-specific, climate-adaptive coastal management.

Reservoir operations play a pivotal role in modifying drought propagation processes, particularly by influencing the transition from meteorological to hydrological drought. This study investigates the drought propagation characteristics in the middle reaches of the Hanjiang River Basin, China, under both natural and observed (reservoir-influenced) conditions. The Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index and Standardized Streamflow Index were utilized to characterize meteorological and hydrological drought, respectively. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool was employed to reconstruct natural streamflow, providing a baseline for comparison. A nonlinear copula function was applied to model the dependence between meteorological and hydrological drought characteristics, and a Copula-Bayesian network was developed to quantify propagation probabilities. Under the regulation of the Danjiangkou Reservoir, drought propagation characteristics for 1–12-month timescales have shifted markedly: the average propagation time downstream was prolonged from 0.25–0.70 months to 0.94–2.36 months, while the propagation rate declined from 0.83–0.89 to 0.48–0.65, and the sensitivity decreased from 0.83–0.96 to 0.68–0.79. In the natural scenario, the optimal propagation model was based on the Gumbel copula, whereas the observed scenario was best fitted by the Frank copula. The likelihood of hydrological drought increased with the intensity and duration of meteorological drought. However, compared to natural conditions, reservoir regulation significantly delayed the onset and reduced the probability of hydrological drought occurrence. These findings elucidate the nonlinear dynamics of drought propagation and underscore the regulating effect of large-scale reservoirs on downstream hydrological responses.

Wave nonlinearity plays a critical role in modulating energy dissipation and sediment transport in vegetated coastal zones, influencing shoreline stability and ecosystem-based defenses. This study analyzes 45 d of wave observations from the Yangtze Estuary, including data collected during Typhoon Khanun, to investigate its spatial variability and underlying mechanisms of wave nonlinearity across a mudflat–vegetation transect. Wave skewness and asymmetry varied within tidal cycles, increasing at low tide and decreasing at high tide. During typhoon conditions, nonlinearity intensified significantly, with skewness increasing by up to 346% and asymmetry shifting toward more forward-leaning waveforms, both closely linked to elevated Ursell numbers. Bispectral analysis at five stations across the transect revealed distinct energy transfer mechanisms: sum interactions dominated over mudflats, whereas difference interactions prevailed within vegetated zones, indicating vegetation-induced modification of nonlinear wave dynamics. Further analysis shows that shoaling and vegetation exerted opposing influences, amplifying and damping wave nonlinearity, respectively. Empirical formulas proposed by Zhao et al. (Coastal Engineering 2024; 192:104543) from laboratory data were evaluated against the field data, demonstrating reasonable performance under extreme conditions. These findings improve mechanistic understanding of wave–vegetation interactions and support the development of nature-based strategies for coastal resilience and sediment management.

Compound flooding is generated when two or more flood drivers occur simultaneously or in close succession. Multiple drivers can amplify each other and lead to greater impacts than when they occur in isolation. A better understanding of the interdependence between flood drivers would facilitate a more accurate assessment of compound flood risk in coastal regions. This study employed the D-Flow Flexible Mesh model to simulate the historical peak coastal water level, consisting of the storm surge, astronomical tide, and relative sea level rise (RSLR), in Shanghai over the period 1961-2018. It then applies a copula-based methodology to calculate the joint probability of peak water level and rainfall during historical tropical cyclones (TCs) and to calculate the marginal contribution of each driver. The results indicate that the astronomical tide is the leading driver of peak water level, followed by the contribution of the storm surge. In the longer term, the RSLR has significantly amplified the peak water level. This study investigates the dependency of compound flood events in Shanghai on multiple drivers, which helps us to better understand compound floods and provides scientific references for flood risk management and for further studies. The framework developed in this study could be applied to other coastal cities that face the same constraint of unavailable water level records.

It has been shown that the proportion of intense tropical cyclones (TCs) has been increasing together with a poleward migration of TC track. However, their relative importance to TC surge at landfall remains unknown. Here we examine the sensitivity of TC surge in Shanghai to landfall location and intensity with a new dynamical modelling framework. We find a surge sensitivity of 0.8 m (°N)⁻¹ to landfall location, and 0.1 m (m s⁻¹)⁻¹ to wind speed in Shanghai during landfall. The landfall location and intensity are comparably important to surge variation. However, based on a plausible range of reported trends of TC poleward migration and intensity, the potential surge hazard due to poleward migration is estimated to be about three times larger than that by intensity change. The long-term surge risk in Shanghai is therefore substantially more sensitive to changes of TC track and landfall location than intensity. This may also be true elsewhere and in the future.

Cua Dai inlet is a typical microtidal, mixed energy-wave dominated inlet in a tropical monsoon regime in central Vietnam. Both the river flow regime and coastal processes such as induced by waves and tides influence Cua Dai Inlet and its adjacent coasts. Cua Dai Beach, the northern adjacent coast of Cua Dai inlet, has experienced severe erosion since 1995 due to an apparent non-periodic cyclic process, a decrease of sediment supply from the river, estuary and squeeze by coastal developments (Do et al. in J Coast Res 34(1):6–25, 2018). The inlet channel has shifted from North to South which served as an important controlling mechanism for the creation of a new ebb shoal. However, the role of the ebb-tidal delta in relation to the channel shifting and seasonal varying hydrodynamic conditions (river discharge and wave climate) remains poorly understood. Most studies have only considered the impact of waves and tides on the development of the ebb tidal delta. No study has included the impact of a varying river discharge on ebb shoal development and inlet migration. This chapter investigates the seasonal varying hydrodynamics and sediment transport of the inlet and adjacent coasts due to the seasonal varying river discharge and wave climate. The 2DH process-based morphodynamic numerical model (Delft3D) is applied using schematized wave conditions and river discharge. Six simulations with varying dominant wave conditions for the winter and for the summer are executed in combination with varying river discharge classes that corresponding to the dry, wet and flood seasons. There exists an East North East monsoon with a flood season from September to December, an East North East monsoon with a wet season from January to March, and a dry bidirectional South East/East North East monsoon from April to August. We investigate the effect of the seasonal wave climate and seasonal river discharges at Cua Dai inlet by analyzing the effects on the resulting hydrodynamics, sediment transports and potential morphological changes through the inlet and at the adjacent coasts. Primary results indicate that the seasonal variation in the wave climate has a strong influence on the sediment transport patterns in the adjacent coasts. The variation in the river flow dominates the magnitude of sediment transport through the inlet. The results of the simulations show that the inlet generally imports sediment into the estuary except in the case of the flood season. During the flood season the estimated sediment export is significant. Interestingly, the wave direction that varies during summer also influences the magnitude of sediment import into the estuary. Waves coming from the ENE contributes to larger sediment import than waves coming from the SE.

Ongoing eutrophication frequently causes toxic phytoplankton blooms. This induces huge worldwide challenges for drinking water quality, food security and public health. Of crucial importance in avoiding and reducing blooms is to determine the maximum nutrient load ecosystems can absorb, while remaining in a good ecological state. These so called critical nutrient loads for lakes depend on the shape of the load-response curve. Due to spatial variation within lakes, load-response curves and therefore critical nutrient loads could vary throughout the lake. In this study we determine spatial patterns in critical nutrient loads for Lake Taihu (China) with a novel modelling approach called Spatial Ecosystem Bifurcation Analysis (SEBA). SEBA evaluates the impact of the lake's total external nutrient load on the local lake dynamics, resulting in a map of critical nutrient loads for different locations throughout the lake. Our analysis shows that the largest part of Lake Taihu follows a nonlinear load-response curve without hysteresis. The corresponding critical nutrient loads vary within the lake and depend on management goals, i.e. the maximum allowable chlorophyll concentration. According to our model, total nutrient loads need to be more than halved to reach chlorophyll-a concentrations of 30–40 μg L⁻¹ in most sections of the lake. To prevent phytoplankton blooms with 20 μg L⁻¹ chlorophyll-a throughout Lake Taihu, both phosphorus and nitrogen loads need a nearly 90% reduction. We conclude that our approach is of great value to determine critical nutrient loads of lake ecosystems such as Taihu and likely of spatially heterogeneous ecosystems in general.

Although the protective role of mangroves for coasts has been increasingly recognized, that of estuarine mangroves is less well acknowledged. The complex root, stem, and canopy system of healthy estuarine mangroves efficiently reduces the impact of a strong, along-bank flow during high tides and high river discharge, protecting the riverbank from eroding. If a sediment source is available, a healthy mangrove forest also offers a higher potential for sedimentation to compensate for sea-level rise. Unfortunately, along the Mekong, Vietnam, estuaries, mangroves have been rapidly destroyed. In many regions, estuarine mangroves have degraded into narrow strips of <50 m. Riverbanks at those locations are eroding at a rate of 2-4 m y^-1. The main reason for this "estuarine mangrove squeeze" phenomenon is due to the increasing demand to create more space for local fish farming. Hence, squeeze is used in a broader sense than in the context of sea-level rise impact alone. The hypothesis is that there is a critical minimum width for an estuarine mangrove forest strip to maintain its ability to survive. The analysis of available data, both from literature and from satellite observations, supports the hypothesis: An average critical width for Mekong estuaries was found to be approximately 80 m. To obtain insight into the efficiency of a mangrove forest in reducing the impacts of alongshore flow, the state-of-The-Art Delft3D model was applied to the data. The model showed that the penetration-length scale of the shear layer into a mangrove forest requires a certain minimum space to develop fully. It is hypothesized that the minimum width of a mangrove forest, which equals this maximum penetration-length scale, has a crucial role for the health of a mangrove system.