Articles | Volume 18, issue 8
https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-18-2127-2018
https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-18-2127-2018
Research article
 | 
10 Aug 2018
Research article |  | 10 Aug 2018

Understanding epistemic uncertainty in large-scale coastal flood risk assessment for present and future climates

Michalis I. Vousdoukas, Dimitrios Bouziotas, Alessio Giardino, Laurens M. Bouwer, Lorenzo Mentaschi, Evangelos Voukouvalas, and Luc Feyen

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Cited articles

Alfieri, L., Burek, P., Feyen, L., and Forzieri, G.: Global warming increases the frequency of river floods in Europe, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 19, 2247–2260, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-2247-2015, 2015. 
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Alfieri, L., Bisselink, B., Dottori, F., Naumann, G., de Roo, A., Salamon, P., Wyser, K., and Feyen, L.: Global projections of river flood risk in a warmer world, Earth's Future, 5, 171–182, https://doi.org/10.1002/2016EF000485, 2017. 
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Almeida, L. P., Ferreira, Ó., Vousdoukas, M. I., and Dodet, G.: Historical variation and trends in storminess along the Portuguese South Coast, Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 11, 2407–2417, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-11-2407-2011, 2011b. 
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Short summary
We examine sources of epistemic uncertainty in coastal flood risk models. We find that uncertainty from sea level estimations can be higher than that related to greenhouse gas emissions or climate prediction errors. Of comparable importance is information on coastal protection levels and the topography. In the absence of large datasets with sufficient resolution and accuracy, the last two factors are the main bottlenecks in terms of estimating coastal flood risks at large scales.
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