Flood Hazards in Flat Coastal Areas of the Eastern Iberian Peninsula: A Case Study in Oliva (Valencia, Spain)

Abstract

Enhancing resilience against flooding events is of great importance. Eastern Iberian Peninsula coastal areas are well known for high intensity rainfalls known as DANA or “cold drop”. Extreme records in 24 hours can exceed the annual average of the historical series. This phenomenon occurs normally in autumn due to convective storms generated by the existence of cold air in the upper layers of the atmosphere combined with warm winds coming from the Mediterranean Sea. In many coastal areas of the Eastern Iberian Peninsula, their flat topography, sometimes of a marsh nature, and the natural (e.g., dune ridges) and man-made (e.g., infrastructures) factors, result in devastating flooding events of great potential damage and risk for urban and rural areas. In this context, this paper presents the case study of the town of Oliva (Valencia, Spain) and how in a flooding event the flow tends to spread and accumulate along the flat coastal strip of this populated area, causing great potential damage. From that point, the paper discusses the particular issues that flood studies should consider in such flat and heavy rainy areas in terms of the hydrological and hydraulic models to be conducted to serve as the key tool of a correct risk assessment. This includes the correct statistical simulation of rainfalls, the hydrological model dependency on the return period and the correct geometry definition of all possible water barriers. An analysis of the disturbance that climatic change effects may introduce in future flooding events is also performed.

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Flooding Impacts and Farming Motivation in Anam Community of Anambra State, Nigeria: Implication for Food Security

“…Floods are the most common natural disaster that endangers the human ecosystem, and they have slowed the progress of economies in both the developed and the developing worlds ( Woodruff et al, 2021). Flooding can be natural or artificial (Eguibar et al, 2021;Stokes et al, 2021). The cases that have taken place in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Indonesia demonstrate how catastrophic this problem can be and how it affects not only individual lives but also entire cities and economies.…”

Novel Approaches for Regionalising SWAT Parameters Based on Machine Learning Clustering for Estimating Streamflow in Ungauged Basins

“…Strong evidence indicates that Spain is one of the countries most affected by climate change in Europe. An observable rise in the magnitude of rainfall has increased the flooding of rivers and wadis, escalating the potential risk to infrastructure and urban areas (Eguibar et al 2021;Senent-Aparicio et al 2023). Therefore, estimating streamflow records in ungauged basins is essential.…”