Disaster Risk Reduction in EU Coastal Areas

This policy brief outlines lessons from the RISC-KIT project regarding coastal disaster risk reduction (DRR) in Europe, emphasizing the need for a diversified approach to prevention, mitigation, and preparedness in response to increasing flood risks.

• Historical high-impact, low-frequency events, including the 2014 St. Agatha storm in the Adriatic, the 2013 Xavier/St. Nicholas storm in North-West Europe, and the 2010 Xynthia storm in France, have illustrated the flood risks facing exposed European coastal areas.
• The IPCC indicates that risks to coastal zones are expected to rise due to increasing hazards, such as sea level rise, and impacts resulting from ongoing development. This necessitates a re-evaluation of DRR strategies to include a combination of prevention (such as dike protection), mitigation (such as ecosystem-based solutions and limiting construction in flood-prone areas), and preparedness (such as Early Warning Systems).
• The RISC-KIT project created tools and approaches, tested across ten European case study sites with end-user input, to record impact events, identify high-risk coastal areas, suggest DRR measures, and evaluate the suitability and effectiveness of those measures.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2017). Disaster Risk Reduction in EU Coastal Areas. https://www.sei.org/publications/disaster-risk-reduction-eu-coastal-areas-eu-national-regional-policy-makers/

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Disaster Risk Reduction in EU Coastal Areas. 2017. https://www.sei.org/publications/disaster-risk-reduction-eu-coastal-areas-eu-national-regional-policy-makers/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Disaster Risk Reduction in EU Coastal Areas |date=21 April 2017 |url=https://www.sei.org/publications/disaster-risk-reduction-eu-coastal-areas-eu-national-regional-policy-makers/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2017disaster, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Disaster Risk Reduction in EU Coastal Areas}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2017}, month = apr, url = {https://www.sei.org/publications/disaster-risk-reduction-eu-coastal-areas-eu-national-regional-policy-makers/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }