Flood risk from geophysical and hydroclimatic hazards: an essential integration for disaster risk management and climate change adaptation in the coastal zone

Abstract

Coastal zones worldwide have been subjected to increasingly high anthropic pressures over the last 50 years. The rapid urban growth rate together with the acceleration of Climate Change are boosting negative impacts on a wide range of coastal socioecological systems around the globe: as exposure, vulnerability, and the frequency and intensity of hydroclimatic hazards increase, so does disaster risk. Controlling exposure is the most efficient way of reducing flood risk; to this end, urban and infrastructure engineering design and planning processes should work hand in hand. Nonetheless, defining the “acceptable” risk level is not a technical question; it requires evidence-based guidance from “experts”, but sustainable solutions can only be reached through social negotiation processes conducted in the political arena. New forms of coastal governance should be devised.