Climate Risk Overview: Rapid Global Selection of Climate Adaptation Opportunities
Type:
Presented during:
WODCON XXIII - Dredging is changing - The Practice. The Science. The Business.
Authors:
G.J. de Boer, R.J. Oudman, A.L.C. Danebjer, M.Z. Jawaid, G. Tosun, R. Terry, R. Viersma
Abstract
"In January 2021 Van Oord has launched the Climate Risk Overview, a global online tool that combines multiple data layers and enables users to identify the world's most-at-risk coastal areas (https://climaterisk.data.vanoord.com). The tool is in the public domain and anyone can use it. Van Oord is using the tool to facilitate knowledge-sharing, create awareness for public private partnerships and financing to deliver solutions to vulnerable areas. The Climate Risk Overview starts with all potential locations for climate adaptation projects in the world. The entire world's coastline is split into 10-kilometre stretches. These are used to cover all adjacent land that is below 10m elevation. This yields 60,000+ locations with an area of order 10x10km2. A range of Big Data sources is subsequently mapped onto these locations: huge elevation grids (DEM), huge polygon sets (mangroves), country sets, etc. This data originates mainly from open sources. The mapping is validated by comparing global numbers of flood exposure of population to recent literature. The online tool visualizes the various data on a map for all locations: population, flood exposure, low-lying land, ecology and resilience. Filters can be applied to all data simultaneously to help narrow down to a selected number of locations. The result depends on the user's perspective: different storylines and priorities can lead to a different set of potential locations. After location selection, stakeholder engagement, detailed desk and site studies need to be executed to explore if we can make a business case using more localized detailed data. Our tool allows us to focus our resources on the most promising follow-up locations. We hope to find unknown opportunities for climate adaptation projects, and shorten the time-to-market for these opportunities. The tool is anticipated to be continuously expanded with new layers after the feedback from partners in these detailed follow up studies."
Keywords: climate adaptation, nature based solutions, flood risk, coastal protection, beach nourishment