Articles | Volume 26, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-26-1859-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-26-1859-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
24 Apr 2026
Research article |
| 24 Apr 2026
| 24 Apr 2026
Pan-European assessment of coastal flood hazards
Camila Cotrim
IHCantabria – Instituto de Hidráulica Ambiental de la Universidad de Cantabria, Santander, 39011, Spain
IHCantabria – Instituto de Hidráulica Ambiental de la Universidad de Cantabria, Santander, 39011, Spain
Iñigo J. Losada
IHCantabria – Instituto de Hidráulica Ambiental de la Universidad de Cantabria, Santander, 39011, Spain
Sara Novo
IHCantabria – Instituto de Hidráulica Ambiental de la Universidad de Cantabria, Santander, 39011, Spain
Iria Suárez
IHCantabria – Instituto de Hidráulica Ambiental de la Universidad de Cantabria, Santander, 39011, Spain
Related authors
Camila Cotrim, Alexandra Toimil, Iñigo Losada, Melisa Menéndez, and Hector Lobeto
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2998, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2998, 2025
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Coastal storms place millions of people and infrastructures at risk. So, we developed a method to estimate extreme total water levels in a consistent way across Europe, as this is the main indicator for coastal flooding, for example. We consider local variations in tides, storm surges, waves, and beach slopes. We found that parts of Europe are affected differently, with tides being important on the Atlantic coast, storm surges in the Baltic Sea, and waves mattering most in the Mediterranean Sea.
Camila Cotrim, Alexandra Toimil, Iñigo Losada, Melisa Menéndez, and Hector Lobeto
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2998, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2998, 2025
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Coastal storms place millions of people and infrastructures at risk. So, we developed a method to estimate extreme total water levels in a consistent way across Europe, as this is the main indicator for coastal flooding, for example. We consider local variations in tides, storm surges, waves, and beach slopes. We found that parts of Europe are affected differently, with tides being important on the Atlantic coast, storm surges in the Baltic Sea, and waves mattering most in the Mediterranean Sea.
Roderik van de Wal, Angélique Melet, Debora Bellafiore, Paula Camus, Christian Ferrarin, Gualbert Oude Essink, Ivan D. Haigh, Piero Lionello, Arjen Luijendijk, Alexandra Toimil, Joanna Staneva, and Michalis Vousdoukas
State Planet, 3-slre1, 5, https://doi.org/10.5194/sp-3-slre1-5-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/sp-3-slre1-5-2024, 2024
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Sea level rise has major impacts in Europe, which vary from place to place and in time, depending on the source of the impacts. Flooding, erosion, and saltwater intrusion lead, via different pathways, to various consequences for coastal regions across Europe. This causes damage to assets, the environment, and people for all three categories of impacts discussed in this paper. The paper provides an overview of the various impacts in Europe.
Rémi Thiéblemont, Gonéri Le Cozannet, Jérémy Rohmer, Alexandra Toimil, Moisés Álvarez-Cuesta, and Iñigo J. Losada
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 21, 2257–2276, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-21-2257-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-21-2257-2021, 2021
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Sea level rise and its acceleration are projected to aggravate coastal erosion over the 21st century. Resulting shoreline projections are deeply uncertain, however, which constitutes a major challenge for coastal planning and management. Our work presents a new extra-probabilistic framework to develop future shoreline projections and shows that deep uncertainties could be drastically reduced by better constraining sea level projections and improving coastal impact models.
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Short summary
Coastal flooding places millions of people and infrastructures at risk. In this study, we introduce a Europe-wide approach to identify areas exposed to coastal flooding. The approach combines information on how water levels change under storm conditions with a model that simulates how flood spreads across the land. We found that using simpler methods, as is often done, can make the results less reliable in places like Belgium and the United Kingdom.
Coastal flooding places millions of people and infrastructures at risk. In this study, we...
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