Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e2024EF004766 |
| Journal | Earth's future |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue number | 11 |
| Publication status | Published - 18 Nov 2024 |
Abstract
The economies and livelihoods of many coastal megacities are at serious risk from flooding, despite investments in flood defenses. For instance, in Ho Chi Minh City, the construction of a large-scale ring-dike has mitigated negative effects from storm surges, yet damage is still frequently caused by high-intensity rainfalls leading to nuisance flooding, which is responsible for the highest proportion of flood losses in the city today. Because sustainable flood risk management requires detailed spatial information, we analyze the local risk and its components based on a chain of novel models previously calibrated and validated for Ho Chi Minh City. Furthermore, we assess the effectiveness of two decentralized adaptation options, namely private precautionary measures and rainwater retention, for mitigating pluvial flooding. Our integrated risk assessment reveals that the approaches are complementary, which is a major advantage for their implementation. Implementation of both approaches has the potential to reduce the expected annual damage and the number of annually affected households by 16% and 56%, respectively. This is also reflected in a significant reduction of annual losses per household, which we propose as an additional, people-centered indicator of flood risk. Moreover, these measures are well-suited to strengthen citizen participation in risk reduction beyond top-down protection schemes. Complementing the ring-dike with decentralized adaptation options can therefore be seen as an effective and generic strategy to alleviate the impacts of nuisance flooding in coastal megacities, such as Ho Chi Minh City, and should be incentivized by decision-makers. Aside from hydrological and metocean site conditions, both the methodology and findings of this study are transferrable to any coastal megacity facing similar challenges.
Keywords
- climate change adaptation, coastal megacities, HCMC, integrated risk assessment, urban flooding, urbanization
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Environmental Science(all)
- General Environmental Science
- Earth and Planetary Sciences(all)
- Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous)
Sustainable Development Goals
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In: Earth's future, Vol. 12, No. 11, e2024EF004766, 18.11.2024.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Effective Adaptation Options to Alleviate Nuisance Flooding in Coastal Megacities
T2 - Learning From Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
AU - Scheiber, Leon
AU - Sairam, Nivedita
AU - Hoballah Jalloul, Mazen
AU - Rafiezadeh Shahi, Kasra
AU - Jordan, Christian
AU - Visscher, Jan
AU - Zadeh, Tara Evaz
AU - Oostwegel, Laurens J.N.
AU - Schorlemmer, Danijel
AU - Son, Ngo Thanh
AU - Nguyen Quan, Hong
AU - Schlurmann, Torsten
AU - Garschagen, Matthias
AU - Kreibich, Heidi
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2024. The Author(s).
PY - 2024/11/18
Y1 - 2024/11/18
N2 - The economies and livelihoods of many coastal megacities are at serious risk from flooding, despite investments in flood defenses. For instance, in Ho Chi Minh City, the construction of a large-scale ring-dike has mitigated negative effects from storm surges, yet damage is still frequently caused by high-intensity rainfalls leading to nuisance flooding, which is responsible for the highest proportion of flood losses in the city today. Because sustainable flood risk management requires detailed spatial information, we analyze the local risk and its components based on a chain of novel models previously calibrated and validated for Ho Chi Minh City. Furthermore, we assess the effectiveness of two decentralized adaptation options, namely private precautionary measures and rainwater retention, for mitigating pluvial flooding. Our integrated risk assessment reveals that the approaches are complementary, which is a major advantage for their implementation. Implementation of both approaches has the potential to reduce the expected annual damage and the number of annually affected households by 16% and 56%, respectively. This is also reflected in a significant reduction of annual losses per household, which we propose as an additional, people-centered indicator of flood risk. Moreover, these measures are well-suited to strengthen citizen participation in risk reduction beyond top-down protection schemes. Complementing the ring-dike with decentralized adaptation options can therefore be seen as an effective and generic strategy to alleviate the impacts of nuisance flooding in coastal megacities, such as Ho Chi Minh City, and should be incentivized by decision-makers. Aside from hydrological and metocean site conditions, both the methodology and findings of this study are transferrable to any coastal megacity facing similar challenges.
AB - The economies and livelihoods of many coastal megacities are at serious risk from flooding, despite investments in flood defenses. For instance, in Ho Chi Minh City, the construction of a large-scale ring-dike has mitigated negative effects from storm surges, yet damage is still frequently caused by high-intensity rainfalls leading to nuisance flooding, which is responsible for the highest proportion of flood losses in the city today. Because sustainable flood risk management requires detailed spatial information, we analyze the local risk and its components based on a chain of novel models previously calibrated and validated for Ho Chi Minh City. Furthermore, we assess the effectiveness of two decentralized adaptation options, namely private precautionary measures and rainwater retention, for mitigating pluvial flooding. Our integrated risk assessment reveals that the approaches are complementary, which is a major advantage for their implementation. Implementation of both approaches has the potential to reduce the expected annual damage and the number of annually affected households by 16% and 56%, respectively. This is also reflected in a significant reduction of annual losses per household, which we propose as an additional, people-centered indicator of flood risk. Moreover, these measures are well-suited to strengthen citizen participation in risk reduction beyond top-down protection schemes. Complementing the ring-dike with decentralized adaptation options can therefore be seen as an effective and generic strategy to alleviate the impacts of nuisance flooding in coastal megacities, such as Ho Chi Minh City, and should be incentivized by decision-makers. Aside from hydrological and metocean site conditions, both the methodology and findings of this study are transferrable to any coastal megacity facing similar challenges.
KW - climate change adaptation
KW - coastal megacities
KW - HCMC
KW - integrated risk assessment
KW - urban flooding
KW - urbanization
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85209931053&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1029/2024EF004766
DO - 10.1029/2024EF004766
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85209931053
VL - 12
JO - Earth's future
JF - Earth's future
SN - 2328-4277
IS - 11
M1 - e2024EF004766
ER -