Project description
The resilience of coastal human-environment Systems to storms
As coastal populations grow, coastal cities are under increasing threat from storms. Coast ecosystems can protect coastal communities against weather events, yet they are largely overlooked in existing risk assessments for coastal cities. The EU-funded CHES project will provide a comprehensive view of coastal environment resilience against storms under climate change by considering both the human and ecosystem elements. The project will quantify the protective effect of coastal ecosystems, forecast future ecosystem conditions, and assess the coupled human-environment systems' resilience under diverse coastal urban development and climate scenarios. CHES will increase understanding of the vulnerability of coastal human-environment systems to storms, contributing to the development of sustainable coastal management.
Objective
Coastal cities face an increasing threat from storms due to the growing coastal populations and the intensifying storms under global warming. Coastal ecosystems can significantly reduce catastrophic damage from storms; however, existing risk assessments for coastal cities either do not include this crucial factor or do not consider future ecosystem changes. The proposed project, Resilience of Coastal Human-Environment Systems, CHES, will provide a holistic view of coastal environment resilience against storms under climate change by accounting for both the human and ecosystem elements. This work will quantify the protective effect of coastal ecosystems, forecast the future ecosystem conditions, and estimate the resilience of the coupled human-environment systems under different coastal urban development and climate scenarios. This project will greatly advance our understanding of the vulnerability of coastal human-environment systems to storms and the value of coastal ecosystems in storm protection, contributing to the development of sustainable coastal management plans coping with climate change.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinator
OX1 2JD Oxford
United Kingdom