Introduction – coastal flood risk

Flooding from rivers, estuaries and the sea poses a threat to many millions of the citizens of Europe and remains the most widely distributed natural hazard in Europe leading to significant economic and social impacts. At the coast, for example, the 1953 North Sea floods caused about 2500 deaths across the UK, Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. Several hundred people died when, in 1962, a major storm flood reached the city of Hamburg, located about 100 km inland, breached several dykes and dams and flooded large parts of the city.

Over half of the population of the Netherlands lives below mean...