Previously in ClimateChangePost
The 2021 floods in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands were more than just ‘heavy rain turning into fast-flowing water’, experts conclude. We must adapt a ‘landscape perspective’ to flooding.
Scientists conclude that climate change has increased the likelihood and intensity of flash flooding in Western Europe and will continue to do so in a warming climate.
The consequences for Europe of doing nothing to the increase of extreme sea levels are hundreds of billions of Euros damage per year by 2100. Extra cost-effective protection reduces this risk by 95%.
Compound floods, simultaneous high water levels at the coast and in nearby rivers, have been relatively strong and frequent at times in parts of northwestern Europe. It’s not clear why.
What sounds like a project from the future, the upcoming North Sea Wind Power Hub is an ambitious plan that has the goal of building a wind farm on an island right in the middle of the North Sea.
Forty years of television video footage of the Tour of Flanders shows strong shifts in the leaf-out and flowering of trees alongside the roads. As a result of 1.5°C warming since 1980.
In an urban office building without active cooling, the number of lost working hours may quadruple between now and 2100. Effective adaptation measures may reduce this up to 90%.
In the Scheldt estuary, effective sea- level rise is up to 15 mm per year since 1930. This is a much higher rate than sea-level rise at the coast
In a warmer future climate, Western Europe will see larger impacts from severe Autumn storms. Not only their frequency will increase, but also their intensity and the area they affect.
How much sea level rise is to be expected at the upper limit of current IPCC scenarios? This question has been dealt with for northern Europe
The 10-year design storm intensity for urban drainage systems in Belgium can increase up to about 50% by the end of this century. Or, systems currently designed for a 20-year return period of flooding
Severe hurricane-force (> 32.6 m/s) storms can cause floods in west-European coastal regions and inflict large-scale damage on infrastructure and agriculture.
At extremely low water levels, the price per tonne for inland waterway transport in the river Rhine area will almost double. These increased transport prices result in welfare losses.