Our work estimates flood risk and standards of protection at global and local scales. For instance, in the UK, coastal flooding is widely recognised as potential risk for civil emergency, with potential consequences including fatalities, damage to property and infrastructure, interruption of essential goods and services, and environmental damage including natural infrastructure.
Results indicate that there are large uncertainties in predicting the consequences of flooding due to the lack of or poor data availability, such as on coastal defences. The work also quantifies extreme water levels, which are set to change as a result of sea-level rise. This means that there is a great risk that defences, where present, may be overtopped under storms and sea water to propagate inland leading to flooding.
