Risk Management in Coastal EngineeringApplied Coastal Research Projects for Northern Germany

摘要

The expected change In global climate and the resulting acceleration of sea level rise require a re-evaluation of coastal protection measures and flood risk management strategies for the German coast. On February 16th 2012 the German public commemorates the 50th anniversary of the North Sea flood of 1962. Over 340 people died and approx. 28,000 apartments or houses were damaged. About 1300 houses were totally destroyed. Since 1962 a lot of effort and money was spent on coastal protection measures inHamburg, Bremen, Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony. The first positive results of these measures are proven by the fact that the peak water level of 1962 was exceeded by 8 storm surge events with appreciably less damage and no loss of life within the last 50 years. Nevertheless, the expected change in global climate and the resulting acceleration of sea level rise require a re-evaluation of coastal protection measures and flood risk management strategies for the German coast. The objective of this paper is to present the two applied coastal research projects HoRisK and Zuku-nftHallig, aiming to develop tools for the evaluation of flood risk and strategies for the adaptation to climate change for coastal regions.