Brief Communication: Bridging the data gap – enhancing the representation of global coastal flood protection

Abstract. Understanding coastal flood protection is crucial for assessing risks from natural hazards and climate change. However, there is a significant lack of quantitative data on coastal flood protection and their standards. FLOPROS, currently the only global database of flood protection standards, relies on limited coastal observations and simplified assumptions. Despite these limitations, it is widely used by the research community, leading to potential uncertainties in impact estimates. We propose that a new community-driven effort is needed to develop a more complete dataset, and we present COASTPROS-EU, a dataset compiling coastal flood protection standards within Europe. This effort further highlights the urgent need for enhanced information. Establishing an accurate dataset requires using both bottom-up and top-down approaches and ensuring diverse societal representation.