Coastal and riverine ecosystems as adaptive flood defenses under a changing climate

Bregje K. van Wesenbeeck (), Wiebe de Boer, Siddharth Narayan, Wouter R. L. van der Star and Mindert B. de Vries
Additional contact information
Bregje K. van Wesenbeeck: Unit for Marine and Coastal Systems, Deltares
Wiebe de Boer: Unit for Hydraulic Engineering, Deltares
Siddharth Narayan: National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS), UCSB
Wouter R. L. van der Star: Unit for Subsoil and Groundwater Systems, Deltares
Mindert B. de Vries: Unit for Marine and Coastal Systems, Deltares

Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, 2017, vol. 22, issue 7, No 5, 1087-1094

Abstract: Abstract Adaptation planning for flood risk forms a significant part of global climate change response. Engineering responses to higher water levels can be prohibitively costly. Several recent studies emphasize the potential role of ecosystems in flood protection as adaptive risk reduction measures while also contributing to carbon fixation. Here, we use a conceptual model study to illustrate the built-in adaptive capability of ecosystems to reduce a wide range of wave heights, occurring at different water levels, to a narrower range. Our model shows that wave height of waves running through a forested section is independent of initial height or of water level. Although the underlying phenomenon of non-linear wave attenuation within coastal vegetation is well studied, implications of reducing variability in wave heights for design of ecosystem and levee combinations have not yet been properly outlined. Narrowing the range of wave heights by a vegetation field generates an adaptive levee that is robust to a whole range of external conditions rather than only to a maximum wave height. This feature can substantially reduce costs for retrofitting of levees under changing future wave climates. Thereby, in wave prone areas, inclusion of ecosystems into flood defense schemes constitutes an adaptive and safe alternative to only hard engineered flood risk measures.

Keywords: Nature-based coastal defense; SWAN-VEG; Climate change adaptation; Mangroves; Riparian forest; Adaptive management; Levees; Flood risk management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11027-016-9714-z Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:masfgc:v:22:y:2017:i:7:d:10.1007_s11027-016-9714-z

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11027

DOI: 10.1007/s11027-016-9714-z

Access Statistics for this article

Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change is currently edited by Robert Dixon

More articles in Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().