Enhancing social well-being and economic prosperity by reinforcing the effectiveness of protection and restoration management in mediterranean MPAs

Enhancing scientific understanding and providing practical guidance for safeguarding and rejuvenating the EU’s Mediterranean Blue Natural Capital employing an Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM) approach.Peer Reviewe

Global mapping of nature based flood risk reduction solutions: A global study on the costs and benefits of nature based solutions compared to conventional hard solutions

Coastal flood risk is expected to increase over the 21st century as a result of climate change and economic growth, which makes low-lying regions especially vulnerable. Global screening techniques are needed for a more widespread use of NBS in these flood prone coastal regions. This research expands on the current assessments done by developing a quantitative global screening method that evaluates the costs and benefits for two defence approaches; 1) increasing the dike height, 2) a hybrid solution that includes increasing of the dike height in combination with restoring mangroves and/or corals. The screening method is based on Van Oord’s Climate Risk Overview tool, in which, globally, coastal hotspots are indicated that have a predefined risk of flooding in the 21st century. The steps added by my screening method include; 1) determining whichNBS can be applied depending on the local physical conditions, 2) determining the costs for both NBS and conventional hard solutions, 3) determining the increase/decrease in flood risk of the different interventions for current and future conditions, 4) monetizing additional benefits that NBS provide, 5) assessing the benefits and costs to determine if NBS are the most optimal solution. The results of this global method are inherently limited by several simplifying assumptions and by the lack of high resolution local data, which influences the cost/risk estimates and corresponding site identification. For 2.6-3.3% of the coastal hotspots, NBS can reduce the investment costs in addition to being cost-beneficial. There is potential for expanding this work by adding sea grasses, salt marshes and oyster reefs as vegetated foreshore systems, and by including more thresholds to make the criterion for potential sites to apply NBS more strict.Civil Engineering | Hydraulic Engineering | Coastal Engineerin

D2.2 – Environmental Data Infrastructures: Services Analysis Report

The Interdisciplinary Data Discovery and Access Service (IDDAS) will be one of the components of the FAIR-EASE (FE) technical framework that will provide users with an easy and FAIR service for discovery and access to multidisciplinary and aggregated data sets as managed and provided by a range of existing environmental data infrastructures. The federation of data resources should facilitate the sharing of multi-disciplinary datasets with users, with the FE data lake, and allow for interaction with the Earth Analytic Lab (EAL) that will grant users access to analytical and visualisation services and applications. In D2.1 - Environmental Data Infrastructures: Services Description Report, 19 of these data infrastructures have been described, in particular with a focus on their data discovery and access mechanisms. As a follow-up, this deliverable D2.2 - Environmental Data Infrastructures: Services Analysis Report describes the available data access mechanisms of the data infrastructures and includes an analysis of the extent to which these are already fit for purpose or require further developments

Improving the sea defense of Central Termoeléctrica Antonio Guiteras

The central Thermo Electrico Antonio Guiteras (CTE Antonio Guiteras) is a thermoelectric power plant located in the bay of Matanzas. In 2017, hurricane Irma passed the north coast of Cuba and destroyed the primary sea defense in front of the CTE, causing major damage to the plant. The power plant is renovated, and a new and improved sea defense is currently being constructed. The goal of this report is to answer the following question: to what extend is the power plant protected during extreme weather conditions and what improvements are needed to ensure that the power plant can remain operational during these extreme weather conditions? To determine what the hydrodynamic and meteorological effects are of a extreme weather event such as a tropical cyclone, a synthetic tropical cyclone is created. This synthetic hurricane must generate large significant waves in combination with a big storm surge, to have severe impact on the CTE. It must also have a significant probability of occurrence. To determine this normative synthetic hurricane, multiple synthetic hurricanes are simulated in Delft3D and XBeach and their corresponding return period is determined. As Irma significantly damaged the CTE, this hurricane is taken as the basis for all synthetic hurricane combinations. The hurricanes each vary from Irma in maximum wind velocities, forward speeds and their tracks. To simulate the physics of hurricane Irma, a spiderweb grid is created at the locations of the hourly best track of Irma. This is then used in the Delft3D model as input for the pressure and wind fields of the hurricane. The output of the Delft3D model is validated with recorded data of observations stations in the Gulf of Mexico. Recorded water levels and wind speeds of buoys near Key West are used for validation. XBeach is used to simulate the nearshore physical processes. XBeach can more accurately predict wave propagation and includes higher order processes in its simulation. As input for the XBeach model, the output of the Delft3D model is used.After running all the synthetic hurricanes in Delft3D, the five resulting normative hurricanes are run in XBeach. The synthetic hurricane that creates the largest significant wave heights at the project area is taken as a basis for the final design. This normative hurricane gives a maximum significant wave height of 8.8 m with a corresponding storm surge of 1.61 m at the location of the CTE. With these values a research on the current defense wall is done. Ultimately for a part of the sea defense an adjustment on the existing defense wall is proposed. A second but lower vertical wall with a bigger bullnose is placed in front of the existing one. This creates a triangular shaped stilling basin, from which the water can flow out at the seaside of the wall. For the other part of the sea defense no adjustments on the wall are proposed but an improvement of the existing drainage capacity is proposed. The existing drainage channel, which lies behind this section, is widened and deepened. Additionally, a drainage wall is built around the powerplant, which diverts the overland flow caused by intense rainfall into the drainage channel. MP304Civil Engineering | Hydraulic Engineerin

Dashboard for the State of the Environment

The Environmental Research Infrastructure (ENVRI) community is a cluster of European research infrastructures focused on the environment and Earth system science. The ENVRI-FAIR project aims to advance the FAIRness of their data and services with emphasis on interoperability and connect the ENVRI community to the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). In this article, we present a proposal for a science project that will develop and launch a dashboard for environmental indicators as a contribution from the ENVRI cluster to the EOSC platform. The dashboard will provide easy access to environmental data and services from multiple research infrastructures and disciplines and support interdisciplinary Earth system science and societal challenges. The proposal describes the objectives, implementation, impact, and dissemination measures of the project, as well as the partners involved and the target groups that can benefit from the dashboard service. We explain how the dashboard will showcase the usefulness and relevance of the observations provided by the research infrastructures, and how it will engage a larger community of researchers and potential data providers in co-creation processes. We also discuss how the dashboard will make use of existing and new EOSC services and resources, and how it will contribute to several EU initiatives and directives related to the environment and climate change

Dashboard for the State of the Environment

The Environmental Research Infrastructure (ENVRI) community is a cluster of European research infrastructures focused on the environment and Earth system science. The ENVRI-FAIR project aims to advance the FAIRness of their data and services with emphasis on interoperability and connect the ENVRI community to the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). In this article, we present a proposal for a science project that will develop and launch a dashboard for environmental indicators as a contribution from the ENVRI cluster to the EOSC platform. The dashboard will provide easy access to environmental data and services from multiple research infrastructures and disciplines and support interdisciplinary Earth system science and societal challenges. The proposal describes the objectives, implementation, impact, and dissemination measures of the project, as well as the partners involved and the target groups that can benefit from the dashboard service. We explain how the dashboard will showcase the usefulness and relevance of the observations provided by the research infrastructures, and how it will engage a larger community of researchers and potential data providers in co-creation processes. We also discuss how the dashboard will make use of existing and new EOSC services and resources, and how it will contribute to several EU initiatives and directives related to the environment and climate change