Previously in ClimateChangePost
The future of the tidal flats of the Wadden Sea, a valuable nature reserve in the Northwest of Europe, depends on the rate of sea-level rise. This rate may increase so fast that the flats will drown.
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.
For a number of rivers, discharge regime is shifting from snowmelt to rainfall-dominated. The number of European regions affected by multiyear drought is expected to increase as a result.
In the period 1998 to 2016, the intertidal flats in the German Wadden Sea have accreted with rates ranging from 4 to 22 mm/year, strongly exceeding the observed recent mean sea-level rise.
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.
Since the 1980s, the deltas at the Greenland coast have been extending into the sea due to increased freshwater runoff from the ice sheet and more sediment transport to the coast.
Presented by Richard Klein (Stockholm Environment Institute) at the 4th Nordic Conference on Climate Change Adaptation in Bergen, Norway, August 2016.
Among the world heritage sites that are threatened by climate change are sites in Greenland that are important for their archaeological evidence of early human inhabitants of Greenland.
Experiences in Copenhagen, New York, London, Rotterdam and Amsterdam shared at the Adaptation Futures Conference in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, May 2016
In Denmark, the need for rapid reaction has been exacerbated by a large increase in the number of extreme precipitation events. These events have resulted in pluvial flooding
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
By the 2020s, the main beneficiary of the warming climate appears to be Finland, where the number of good months is projected to rise by one month
Trans-Arctic navigation is likely to remain a summertime phenomenon. The Arctic marine environment is likely to be fully or partially ice-covered 6–8 months each year
Potential grass yield in Northern Europe is projected to increase in 2050 compared with 1960–1990, mainly as a result of increased growing temperatures.
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.
Extreme storm surge heights likely will show a small increase toward the coasts of the German Bight with stronger changes along the North Frisian Islands ...
Substantial reductions in potential groundwater recharge are projected for the 21st century in southern Europe and increases in northern Europe ...
Mean and extreme wind speeds in Northern Europe have been projected for the future periods 2046–2065 and 2081–2100 ...
Wind-storm losses on a European-wide property insurance portfolio have been quantified under current and future climatic conditions ...