Abstract: Coastal communities throughout the world are exposed to numerous and increasing threats, such as coastal flooding and erosion, saltwater intrusion and wetland degradation. Here, we present the first global-scale analysis of the main drivers of coastal flooding due to large-scale oceanographic factors. Given the large dimensionality of the problem (e.g. spatiotemporal variability in flood magnitude and the relative influence of waves, tides and surge levels), we have performed a computer-based classification to identify geographical areas with homogeneous climates. Results show that 75% of coastal regions around the globe have the potential for very large flooding events with low probabilities (unbounded tails), 82% are tide-dominated, and almost 49% are highly susceptible to increases in flooding frequency due to sea-level rise.
Fuente: Scientific Reports 7, Article number: 5038 (2017)
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
Publication date: 01/07/2017
No. of pages: 8
Publication type: Article
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-05090-w
ISSN: 2045-2322
Spanish project: BIA2014-59643-R
Publication Url: doi:10.1038/s41598-017-05090-w