Urban Areas in Coastal Zones Urban Areas in Coastal Zones

offshore wind or a weakening Gulf Stream can cause this to happen), when many streets near the water start to flood (see Case Study 9.1 Figure 2). The hours that this occurs have already increased in the past due to sea level rise (see Case Study 9.1 Figure 1, third panel). This is expected to dramatically increase in the future (see Case Study 9.1 Figure 3), such that certain streets will be under water and not usable for extensive parts of the year. The second is significant (major) flooding that is related to the effect of tropical and extra-tropical storms, winter storms, and Nor’easters. While the impact of climate change on the frequency and intensity of tropical storms and hurricanes is complex, the frequency of and damage from major storm surges has already increased in recent years because of sea level rise (see Case Study 9.1 Figure 1, first panel). Storms that in the past caused only minor or moderate flood- ing are now causing major floods and more damage to property because of the additional sea level rise on top of storm surge. saltwater intrusion, the city of Hallandale Beach, Florida, plans to relocate its water well field inland, to the west (City of Hallandale Beach, 2013). The Southeast Florida Regional Climate Action Plan (2012; 2014) recommends regionally coordinated water management plans to address stormwater use and disposal, future water resources, wastewater treatments, and water conservation. The Action Plan urges a unified effort among government, businesses, and consumers in order to implement near- and long-term strategies to lessen adverse climate change effects on water supplies while diversifying existing water supplies. Water conservation and development of less vulnerable, new water resources are given high priority. Implementation may require changes in policy and regulatory frameworks, additional funding for infrastructure, development of alternative water supplies, and public education. The Action Plan further advocates development of regional invento- ries of water management infrastructure and additional requirements to prepare for anticipated climate change. It also recommends development of improved saltwater intrusion models and refined inland and tidal inundation maps for increased sea level. The Plan also advises the consideration of climate change impacts in site selection and design of new water and wastewater facilities, as well as in the relocation of existing wellfields and other water management infrastruc- ture (Southeast Florida Regional Compact Climate Change, 2014). Improvements in of are the The ultimate goal is a regional Integrated Management vulnera- general public inputs ABSTRACT The artistic and historical patrimony of Venice is part of humanity’s global heritage. Its preservation involves issues related to global envi- ronmental change, environmental protection and sustainability, economic development, and cultural heritage preservation. The city and its lagoon have been transformed by human interventions over more than a millennium and are now a powerful symbol of the coexistence of the natural and the built environments, of the tension between sustainable and unsustainable uses of natural resources. To preserve the lagoon, the Venetian Republic diverted three major rivers directly out to the sea over the course of about three centuries (1330–1664) (D’Alpaos, 2011). These massive works did invert the increasing sedimentation trend of the lagoon but caused the current state of diffuse erosion. In more recent years, industrial development left its marks on the lagoon water quality and has contributed to the city’s subsidence, while increased tourists fluxes and cruise ship navigation are exerting an ever-growing pressure on the city and its environment as a whole. Overall, ancient and more recent human interventions have greatly increased the vulnerability of the city and of its lagoon to climatic changes, in particular sea level rise acceleration. The protection of the city from increasingly more intense and frequent high tides, the MoSE system (Modulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico, i.e., Experimental Electromechanic Module) is a complex engineer- ing project that has required a complex decision-making process involving a large number of local and global stakeholders and a dif- ficult equilibrium between a large number of often-conflicting uses of environmental resources. The project’s far-reaching environmental consequences have perhaps not yet been fully understood, but will certainly be felt for several generations to come. Sea-level consideration of sea level rise and building stock growth results in higher damage costs than the sum of damage costs caused separately by the two. This phenomenon is consistent with the type II extreme value distributions, which exhibit a heavy right tail (i.e., the damage cost is a convex function of the logarithm of average recurrence interval) (Beirlant et al., 2004). We compare the adaptation options when only new buildings are adapted and when both old and new buildings are adapted. New buildings are regarded as those constructed after 2011. Buildings are adapted by lifting their floors to 1.57 meters above the Australian Height Datum, roughly corresponding to the current 100-year storm- tide level. The adaptation extent is the geographical area inundated by the current 100-year storm-tide events. We found that the benefit of lifting old buildings grows only marginally up to 2056, whereas the bulk of benefit is attributed to the lifting of new buildings. Considering the fact that the modest gain in benefit of lifting old buildings could