New evaluation method for sea flooding considers combined effects of waves and water levels

It will be possible to forecast the likelihood of floods at sea in greater detail than before thanks to a new method.

The information can be utilised in the planning of land use in shoreline areas of cities, for example. The method takes the combined effects of three different factors along coastlines into consideration. These include the average rise in the sea level, short-term variations in water levels, and local waves.

Further infomation:

Researher Ulpu Leijala, Finnish Meteorological Institute, tel. +358 29 539 6568, ulpu.leijala@fmi.fi

Leijala, U., Björkqvist, J.-V., Johansson, M. M., Pellikka, H., Laakso, L., and Kahma, K. K., 2018: Combining probability distributions of sea level variations and wave run-up to evaluate coastal flooding risks, Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 18, 2785-2799. https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-18-2785-2018