Erecting Dutch-style dykes along a third of Europe’s coastline could prevent 83 per cent of projected flood damage from rising sea levels by the end of the century, study shows
- Europe is expected to face as much as 3.3 feet of sea level rise by the year 2100
- Around 200 million people in Europe currently live within 31 miles of the coast
- Dykes would be cost effective for 25% of the UK’s coast with 16” of sea level rise
- These defences would cost between £456–627 million annually, experts predict
- The UK presently spends around £359 million on coastal flood damages a year
Erecting Dutch-style dykes along a third of Europe’s coastline could prevent over 80 per cent of projected flood damage from rising sea levels, a study has found.
Europe is expected to face as much as 3.3 feet of sea level rise by 2100 — presenting serious challenges for the 200 million people who live within 31 miles of the coast.
The researchers found that the ultimate benefits of erecting dykes would outweigh the costs for a quarter of the UK coast under 16 inches of sea level rise.
This would rise to a third of the UK coastline if water levels rose instead by 3.3 feet.
Such protections would cost between £456–627 million annually, compared with the average £359 million in coastal flood damages the UK presently faces each year.
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Erecting Dutch-style dykes, as pictured, along a third of Europe’s coastline could prevent over 80 per cent of projected flood damage from rising sea levels, a study has found
Coastal oceanographer Michalis Vousdoukas of the European Commission Joint Research Centre in Italy and colleagues assessed the costs and benefits of bolstering the defences of the European coastline.
The team considered projections of sea-level rise, waves, tides and storm surges under both moderate and high future greenhouse gas emissions scenarios.
From their modelling, the researchers determined how much land might be flooded and the financial damage such would cause — enabling them to assess the merit of raising dykes in given areas.
The team found that, although the costs of erecting dykes outweighed the resulting benefits for around 68–75 per cent of the European coastline, the benefits outweigh the costs where population density exceeded 500 people per square kilometre.
Furthermore, Belgium had the highest percentage of coastlines (85–95 per cent) where the benefits of building dykes are predicted to compensate for the initial costs. This was followed by France (at 58–66 per cent) and Italy (53–59 per cent).
‘Our study underlines the unprecedented rise in damages from coastal flooding unless mitigation and adaptation measures are taken,’ the team wrote.
‘We find that around 95% of these impacts could be avoided through moderate greenhouse gas emission mitigation and by raising dykes where human settlements and economically important areas exist along the coastline.’
Europe is expected to face as much as 3.3 feet of sea level rise by 2100 — presenting serious challenges for the 200 million people who live within 31 miles of the coast
The UK Environment Agency, however, considers it important to build coastal ‘resilience’, rather than bolstering defences.
‘Resilience includes accepting that in some places we can’t eliminate all flooding and coastal change, and so we need to be better at adapting to living with the consequences,’ an agency draft report argued last year.
‘For example, by designing homes that can be restored quickly after they’ve been inundated with water, or potentially moving communities out of harm’s way.’
‘We cannot expect to build our way out of future climate risks with infinitely high walls and barriers,’ agency chairwoman Emma Howard Boyd said last May, the Times reported.
Meanwhile, the Global Commission on Adaptation last September advocated for considering relocating coastal communities away from areas of sea-level rise.
The full findings of the study were published in the journal Nature Communications.