Suchergebnisse

Abstract. Severe storms have affected European coast lines in the past but knowledge on changes in storminess for the last decades is still sparse. Climate change is assumed to be a main driving factor with the potential to induce changes on the intensity, duration and frequency of powerful marine storms, including a long-term influence on peak wind speeds, surges and waves. It is, therefore, important to investigate whether in the last decades changes in the magnitude of storms, their duration and frequency could be observed. Understanding trends in storminess in the last decades will help to better prepare coastal managers for future events, taking into account potential changes on storm occurrence and magnitude to improve planning of mitigation and adaptation strategies. The purpose of this study was to focus on the evolution of extreme wind conditions, wave height and storm surge levels in the North Sea Region, especially in the Belgian part of the North Sea (BPNS). Based on the analysis performed it is concluded that no clear trend can be observed for the occurrence of significant increasing extreme wind speeds over the BPNS. Furthermore, one can conclude that not enough scientific evidence is available to support scenarios with increased wave height or storminess.

In the past decades, the low-lying region Flanders (Belgium) has fall victim to numerous flood events, causing substantial damage to buildings and infrastructure. In response to this, the Flemish government proposed a new approach which considers the level of risk as a way for safety measurement. Using geographical information systems, this evolution has lead to a comprehensive risk methodology, and more recently to the development of a flood risk assessment tool called LATIS. By estimating the potential damage and the number of casualties during a flood event, LATIS offers the possibility to perform risk analysis in a fast and effective way. This paper presents a brief overview of the currently used methodology for flood risk management in Flanders and its implementation in the LATIS tool. The usefulness of this new tool is demonstrated by a sequence of risk calculations, performed in the framework of climate change impacts on flood risk in Flanders.

Antea Group and KULeuven were awarded a project in Flanders to identify the regions exporting high sediment loads to unnavigable watercourses and the sedimentation zones within them. Two types of models are applied: hydrological sediment export models (SEM) and hydraulic sediment transport models (STM). The influence of erosion control measures on sediment export as well as river engineering measures needs to be taken into account. A concept will be developed to connect the SEM and STM, enabling the sediment to be routed from upstream to the sedimentation zones. Results of the study will be used by the Flemish government to plan erosion control measures, estimate future sedimentation volumes, steer sedimentation and optimize river engineering and dredging works. Finally, model results could also be used to obtain better insights to the re-suspension risks of contaminated sediment in watercourses.