Med-CORDEX phase 3: Sea level and coastal hazards

Although the Mediterranean coastline already exhibits high-risk hotspots driven by multiple coastal hazards and high exposure levels, projected increases in these hazards, even under moderate emission scenarios (IPCC, 2021), are expected to reshape the region’s risk profile. Current hotspots will intensify, and new vulnerable areas and risk hotspots are likely to emerge. Given the coastline’s dense development, high geodiversity, and strong small-scale variability in hazard intensity, robust assessments at both regional (~100s of km) and local (~10 km) scales are crucial for informing adaptation strategies. While basin-wide sea level rise projections exist, high-resolution waves, storm surges, extreme precipitations, and wind fields are still needed to accurately assess coastal flooding, erosion (both episodic and chronic), and emerging compound events. The Med-CORDEX community currently lacks sufficient wave or storm surge modeling capacity to generate these combined hazard datasets, an important gap it aims to address in the near future.

Points of Contact: Rosh Ranasinghe (IHE Delft Institute for Water Education), Jose Jimenez (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya)