Coastal areas are at high risk from storms and associated flooding and erosion. This risk is projected to increase due to climate change. At the same time, many coastal natural features act as natural buffers in that they either divert or reduce flood waters or the energy of waves travelling towards the coast. There are some relatively simple parameters that define whether the line to which the highest tide reaches is likely to be more or less exposed to flooding and erosion risk.
This project will involve building a tool which can draw on a mixture of publicly available geographical and meteorological data bases to produce a visualization of the level of vulnerability of a given coastal region.
Potential sources of data.
- Meteorological data from MetEireann stations (e.g. Dublin Airport) (Available Data – Met Éireann – The Irish Meteorological Service) and/or wave data from the Marine Institute (Home | DigitalOcean.ie)
- Position of the highest astronomical tide (HAT) level from, e.g., EMODnet (EMODnet Map Viewer (europa.eu))
- Presence/absence of a coastal ecosystem (e.g. saltmarsh or seagrass bed), Copernicus Coastal Zones product: Coastal Zones — Copernicus Land Monitoring Service)
Project co-supervised by Professor Iris Moeller (Geography)