Managing coastal hazards

Understanding Coastal Hazards

Coastal hazards are threatening events that occur in or near the coastal areas, causing harm to human beings and the environment.
These include coastal flooding, coastal erosion, sea-level rise, and coastal storms like hurricanes and tsunamis.
The frequency and intensity of coastal hazards can be exacerbated by climate change, including global warming leading to melting glaciers and ice caps which contributes to sea-level rise.

Natural factors influencing coastal hazards include waves, tides, and storm surges, as well as the coastal area’s topography and geological structure.
Human factors can also contribute to the severity of coastal hazards. For instance, building in high-risk areas, over-extraction of groundwater leading to land sinking, and destruction of natural coastal defenses like mangroves and coral reefs.

Physical impacts: Land erosion and land loss, alteration of ecosystems due to saltwater intrusion, and damage to infrastructure.
Economic impacts: Loss of property, damage to tourism industry, financial strain on communities due to cost of repairs and disaster response.
Social impacts: Displacement of local communities, threat to human life, psychological impact such as stress and grief from loss.

Prevention measures: Constructing coastal defences like sea walls, groynes, and storm surge barriers to physically prevent hazards.
Mitigation measures: Implementing actions to reduce the severity of coastal hazards. This could include restoration of mangroves and coral reefs, or sand dune stabilisation.
Preparedness measures: Ensuring emergency services and individuals are prepared for dealing with a hazard, for example through establishing evacuation plans or conducting drills.

The Maldives is a low-lying island nation in the Indian Ocean, extremely susceptible to coastal flooding and sea-level rise.
They utilise both hard engineering solutions such as building sea walls, as well as soft solutions like planting vegetation to stabilise the sand and rehabilitate reefs.
They are also developing a resilience plan involving relocation of population to higher islands, and Climate Change Trust Fund aimed at financing projects that promote adaptation and mitigation measures.