A better understanding of how tidal-flat reclamation changes the flood hazard is critical for climate-proofing coastal flood defense design of heavily urbanized areas. Since the 1950s, large-scale reclamation has been performed along the Shanghai coast, China, to fulfill the land demands of city expansion. We now show that the loss of tidal flats may have resulted in harmful impacts of coastal storm flooding. Using the foreshore profiles measured before and after reclamation (i.e., wide vs. narrow tidal flat), we determined the long-term changes in flood risk using a numerical model that combines extreme tidal level and wave overtopping analysis. Results show that wide tidal flats in front of a seawall provide efficient wave damping even during extreme water levels. Reclamation of these tidal flats substantially increased wave heights and correspondingly reduced the return period of a specific storm. As a result, estimates of overtopping are aggravated by more than 80% for the varying return periods examined. It is concluded that the disasters of coastal flooding after the 1997 tidal-flat reclamation in Hangzhou Bay, China are a consequence of both anthropogenic and natural activities. Moreover, our model calculations provide an equation describing the equivalent dike height needed to compensate for the loss of every km tidal flat of a certain elevation, and vice versa. For example, for every km of tidal flat ranging from high marsh to bare tidal flat that is being regained, the dike can be lowered by 0.84 m–0.67 m, when designing for a 1 in 200 years storm event. Overall, we suggest that wide tidal flats are ideally restored in front of dikes, and that when tidal areas are reclaimed, the seawall height is raised as part of the intertidal reclamation procedure. Using such an equivalent protection standard is relevant to designing hybrid flood defense system worldwide.

With climate change and rising sea levels, the coastal zone’s flood risk is deteriorating. Previous researches have shown a gradually degrading capacity of traditional hard engineering structures (e.g., seawall, dikes) on flood mitigation due to problems such as land subsidence and insufficient maintenance. To remedy the defects, the “building with nature concept” for coastal protection with saltmarshes was examined by combining field measurements and numerical simulations. The advantages of saltmarsh over traditional seawall on flood protection was demonstrated from the perspective of both flood area mitigation and economic gain, based on scenario simulations. Results show that tidal wetlands are essential in mitigating significant wave heights (H_s) and current velocities even during storm conditions. The storm wave and current velocity reduction ratio (RR_w and RR_c) by saltmarshes on Chongming Dongtan Shoal (CMDS) during Typhoon 9711 is approximately 11% and 51%, respectively. The wave and current mitigation by Scirpus mariqueter are more efficient than Spartina alterniflora and Phragmites australis during measurements in 2010, which were approximately 0.3 m and 0.2 m/s, 0.125 m and 0.155 m/s, 0.086 m and 0.128 m/s per kilometer width, respectively. The summer saltmarsh area 54.2 km² on CMDS protects approximately 32 km² land area behind the seawall from being flooded, equivalent to the seawall heightening of approximately 0.42 m on equivalent flood mitigation. The performance of cost-and-benefit analysis shows a relatively higher (by 3%–7%) net present value (NPV) and a higher (by 1.5 times) benefit-cost ratio (BC) of nature-based solution (i.e., saltmarsh restoration) compared with traditional hard engineering solution (i.e., seawall construction). Thus, building seawall with nature, such as a hybrid flood protection measure, should be implemented in the future coastal redesign and maintenance.

A significant large number of dams have been constructed in the past two centuries in the United States. These dams’ ability to regulate downstream flooding has received world-wide attention. In this study, data from 38 rivers distributed over the entire conterminous Untied States with extensive pre- and post-dam annual peak discharge records, were collected to research the impacts of various dams on the flood behaviors at a national scale. The results indicate that dams have led to significant reductions in flood magnitude for nearly all of the sites; the decrease rate in the mean of annual peak discharge varies between 7.4% and 95.14%, except for the Dead River, which increased by 1.46%. Because of dams’ effectiveness, the probability density curve of annual peak flow changes from a flat to peaked shape because both the range and magnitude of high discharges are decreased. Moreover, the potential impact of dams on flood characteristics were closely related to the dam’s geographic location and function, the ratio of the storage capacity of the dam to the mean annual runoff of the river (C/R), and the ratio of reservoir storage capacity to the area of its drainage (C/D). Specifically, the effects of dams on annual peak flows were more related to latitude than longitude. Compared with dams built for other purposes, the dam exclusively used for flood management cut off more flood peaks. Increases in the ratios of C/R and C/D increased the degree of modification of annual maximum discharge.