Synthetic impact response functions for flood vulnerability analysis and adaptation measures in coastal zones under changing climatic conditions: a case study in Gippsland coastal region, Australia

• Published in: Natural hazards (Dordrecht) 2011-11, Vol.59 (2), p.967-986
• Main Authors: Dutta, Dushmanta, Wright, Wendy, Rayment, Philip
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adaptation; Civil Engineering; Climate change; Climatic conditions; Coastal; Coastal zone; Coastal zone management; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Engineering and environment geology. Geothermics; Environmental impact; Environmental Management; Exact sciences and technology; Floods; Geophysics/Geodesy; Geotechnical Engineering & Applied Earth Sciences; Hydrogeology; Impact response; Management; Marine; Natural Hazards; Natural hazards: prediction, damages, etc; Original Paper; Response functions; Risk assessment; Sea level; Sea level rise
• ISSN: 0921-030X; 1573-0840
• DOI: 10.1007/s11069-011-9812-x

There is an increasing concern that the current management practices for many coastal regions are unsustainable. Very few countries have planned to deal with the exacerbation of environmental decline in the face of sea level rise. It is therefore necessary to assess socioeconomic and environmental impacts of sea level rises to better understand the vulnerability of coastal zones, as part of devising adaptive and integrated management principles. This paper presents a systematic approach by which relevant stakeholders can be actively engaged in prioritising flood impact issues and deriving information for quantification of impacts for adaptation measures and demonstrates the approach through implementation in the Gippsland coastal region. As outcomes of the project, we have identified key issues of concern for this region for flood impacts and constructed synthetic response functions for quantification of impacts of floods on some of the key issues in the region. The analysis also showed that stakeholders consider that some of the issues are not likely to be significantly affected by floods and thus may not require adaptation measures. The analysis did not provide high agreement on some issues. Different approaches are required to assess the importance of these issues and to establish impact response functions for them.