Abstract
A new coastal early warning system CEWS called iCoast for the NW Mediterranean Sea is under development. It is composed of three numerical modules: meteorological, hydrodynamic and morphodynamic. The CEWS is designed for use on open sandy beaches, pocket beaches, secondary harbours as well as areas of coastal defences. A set of hotspots, prone to erosion or flooding, along the Catalan coast are being identified through a coastal hazard and risk mapping. Special attention is given to a set of intervention and emergency protocols based on the forecast outputs and the application of Quick Defence Measures (QDM) to diminish the risk. This paper presents the initial architecture and highlights the next step for QDM under the iCoast project.
Highlights
A significant part of the European Mediterranean coast is limited in its ability to deal with environmental, physical and hydro-meteorological hazards due to the presence of hard structures such as for example promenades, buildings, roads, railways
In the last 20 years, extreme storms have been responsible for at least 50 casualties alone in the NW Spanish Mediterranean coast and for significant damages in coastal defences, harbours and infrastructures amounting over 30M €
Forewarning allows the selection of the best coastal management strategy. This is the basic idea of the iCoast (Integrated Coastal Alert System) EU Project the main objective of which is to develop a tool to address coastal risks caused by extreme waves and high sea water levels in European coastal areas. iCoast is planned to be used as a coastal early warning system to forecast storm events and as a tool to help in decision making for coastal interventions and eventual management
Summary
A significant part of the European Mediterranean coast is limited in its ability to deal with environmental, physical and hydro-meteorological hazards due to the presence of hard structures such as for example promenades, buildings, roads, railways. Forewarning (about e.g. storm impacts) allows the selection of the best coastal management strategy This is the basic idea of the iCoast (Integrated Coastal Alert System) EU Project the main objective of which is to develop a tool to address coastal risks caused by extreme waves and high sea water levels in European coastal areas. In each category the mean water level (astronomic tide and surge) can be approximately constant or present a growth pattern (in phase or uncoupled with waves) This classification will serve to initially estimate the potential effects of the forecasted storm within the iCoast prototype and propose an accommodation or defence action. The MyOcean forecasting service (Bahurel et al 2009) will provide the boundary conditions of sea level height, salinity, temperature and general circulation for the hydrodynamic model
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