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- RISC-KIT: Resilience-Increasing Strategies for Coasts - toolKITPublication . Van Dongeren, Ap; Ciavola, Paolo; Viavattene, Christophe; de Kleermaeker, Simone; Martinez, Grit; Ferreira, Óscar; Costa, Cristina; McCall, RobertRecent and historic high-impact events have demonstrated the flood risks faced by exposed coastal areas. These risks will increase due to climate change and economic development. This requires a re-evaluation of coastal disaster risk reduction DRR strategies and prevention, mitigation and preparedness PMP measures. To this end, the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction formulated the Hyogo Framework for Action, and the EU has issued the Floods Directive. By their nature, neither is specific about the methods to be used to assess coastal risks, particularly those risks resulting from dune and structure overtopping, the non-stationarity of surge and flash flood events, and coastal morphodynamic response. This paper describes a set of open-source and open-access methods, tools and management approaches to fill this gap. A Coastal Risk Assessment Framework will assess coastal risk at a regional scale. Thus critical hotspots can be identified for which an impact-oriented Early Warning System/Decision Support System is developed. This can be applied in dual mode: as a forecast and warning system and as an ex-ante planning tool to evaluate the vulnerability. The tools are demonstrated on case study sites on a range of EU coasts with diverse geomorphic settings, land use, forcing, hazard types and socio-economic, cultural and environmental characteristics. Specific DRR plans will be developed for all sites. A management guide of PMP measures and management approaches is to be developed. The toolkit will benefit forecasting and civil protection agencies, coastal managers, local government, community members, NGOs, the general public and scientists.
- RISC-KIT: Resilience-increasing Strategies for CoastsPublication . Van Dongeren, Ap; Ciavola, Paolo; Martinez, Grit; Viavattene, Christophe; DeKleermaeker, Simone; Ferreira, Óscar; Costa, Cristina; McCall, RobertHigh-impact storm events have demonstrated the vulnerability of coastal zones in Europe and beyond. These impacts are likely to increase due to predicted climate change and ongoing coastal development. In order to reduce impacts, disaster risk reduction (DRR) measures need to be taken, which prevent or mitigate the effects of storm events. To drive the DRR agenda, the UNISDR formulated the Sendai Framework for Action, and the EU has issued the Floods Directive. However, neither is specific about the methods to be used to develop actionable DRR measures in the coastal zone. Therefore, there is a need to develop methods, tools and approaches which make it possible to: identify and prioritize the coastal zones which are most at risk through a Coastal Risk Assessment Framework, and to evaluate the effectiveness of DRR options for these coastal areas, using an Early Warning/Decision Support System, which can be used both in the planning and event-phase. This paper gives an overview of the products and results obtained in the FP7-funded project RISC-KIT, which aims to develop and apply a set of tools with which highly-vulnerable coastal areas (so-called "hotspots") can be identified.
- Introduction to RISC-KIT: resilience-increasing strategies for coastsPublication . Van Dongeren, Ap; Ciavola, Paolo; Martinez, Grit; Viavattene, Christophe; Bogaard, Tom; Ferreira, Óscar; Higgins, Ruth; McCall, RobertIn this paper an introduction is provided to the RISC-KIT project’s goals, products and applications, which is the subject of this Special Issue. Subsequent papers provide the details on the developed tools and their application on ten case study sites in Europe.
- The role of culture for coastal disaster risk reduction measures: empirical evidence from northern and southern EuropePublication . Martinez, Grit; Costas, Susana; Ferreira, OscarRecent and historic high-impact events have demonstrated significant flood risks to many coastal areas in Europe and across the globe. Understanding the behavior of humans in relation to risk management poses grand challenges for both natural and social sciences and humanities. The study analyzes the cultural aspects of coastal risk management and illustrates path-dependencies of concrete disaster risk reduction measures in relation to local contexts in European coastal regions in Northern and South Western Europe. It adopts a comparative approach by targeting risk perception and risk management related to coastal floods and erosion, induced by storms and sea level rise, in two contrasting coastal areas: German coastal state Schleswig–Holstein at the Baltic Sea (especially the communities Eckernförde and Timmendorfer Strand) and the Portuguese barrier island system of Ria Formosa (especially the community of Faro Beach). Both regions are very low lying with only a few meters above sea level and exposed to similar hazards such as erosion and floods induced by coastal storms, and while they are both attractive touristic destinations, they are culturally, socio-economically and politically very different. The geographical and the socio-cultural contexts of the case study regions are assessed first using an explorative approach, followed by an analysis of the relevance of cultural aspects for the implementation of disaster risk reduction measures. The study addresses both first responders (city authorities, citizens) and scholars. It is found that the choice of risk reduction measures hinges on the values underlying people's perspectives about the desired outcomes of specific measures and that the role of identity and meaning making are still undervalued in decision making processes. It concludes that subjective capacities formed by cultural identities, knowledge, trust coupled with a variety of factors of socio-economic and political texture are important to understand local decision making processes. The authors found that lively ‘culture of risk memory’, ‘trust in scientific information and community’ as well as decision making of coastal authorities coupled with inclusiveness and participation of communities in formulating and implementing disaster risk reduction measures are prerequisites for successful collaboration and in turn execution of disaster risk reduction measures.