Aims and objectives

The aims of CHAMFER are to advance understanding of how weather-related multi-hazards control coastal flooding and erosion, determine how these multi-hazards will respond to climate change and coastal management, and provide advice to stakeholders on coastal management and adaptation options.

This will be achieved via the following science objectives and research questions:

Objective 1: To determine how multiple terrestrial and marine hazard components control occurrence and intensity of extreme hydrodynamic conditions responsible for coastal flooding and erosion

  • How do regional relative sea level, storm surges, waves, tides, and rivers interact to result in flooding and coastal erosion both now and in the future?
  • How is the probability of extreme hydrodynamic conditions affected by statistical dependence between the key terrestrial and marine hazard components?
  • How will future changes in climate modify multi-hazard interactions, statistical dependence and the probability of flooding and erosion?

Objective 2: To quantify the protective services and vulnerability of multiple coastal habitats to climate-driven multi-hazards

  • What is the efficacy of assemblages of coastal habitats in protecting natural and built assets from coastal flooding and erosion; and how is it controlled by habitat properties (e.g., co-location, habitat dimensions, density, age, composition, etc.)?
  • What is the vulnerability of protective coastal habitats to both continuous and episodic climate change pressures?
  • What are the emergent protective services provided by coastal habitats around the UK under plausible climate scenarios? How might these services change under climate-driven habitat fragmentation (i.e. loss of connectivity and ecological coherence) and changes in habitat condition?

Objective 3: To quantify the protection offered by coastal management options that work with nature for generic coastal systems

  • Which forms of 'working with natural processes' schemes offer best compromise between (i) local efficacy in protecting natural and built assets and (ii) effects to surrounding coastlines?
  • How will future changes in climate modify optimal management options?

Objective 4: To provide the UK science community with a new integrated, cross-sectoral, system of analysis for coastal hazards and a series of numerical simulations under different futures

Objective 5: To engage with government departments, public sector organisations, and industry users to inform coastal adaptation and resilience building