Comrisk – a transnational project of public authorities on coastal risk management

Abstract

Storm surges present a major natural hazard in the North Sea region (NSR). In this region, coastal lowlands occupy an area of about 40,000 km2. More than 16 million people live here, and major economic activities take place. Without appropriate flood defence measures these lowlands may become flooded during severe storm surges. In order to achieve a sharing of knowledge and a balanced approach on coastal risk management, the North Sea Coastal Management Group decided in 2002 to initiate a transnational project: “COMRISK – common strategies to reduce the risk of storm floods in coastal lowlands”. The project is co-financed by the European Union under its INTERREG IIIB programme for the NSR. In this paper, the project is introduced as an example of international co-operation of public authorities on coastal risk management, and first results of two subprojects are presented.