WW-R-4: Investment in coastal protection

The picture shows a large construction project by the sea. Large blocks of stone are being moved by large cranes and a large truck. Click to enlarge
Coastal protection structures have to be adapted to changed climate conditions.
Source: Photograph: © Deyan Georgiev / stock.adobe.com

2019 Monitoring Report on the German Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change

Table of Contents

 

WW-R-4: Investment in coastal protection

The funding made available by the Federal Government for the purpose of coastal protection declined between 2000 and 2006. After an increase in funding between 2006 and 2009, investments by the Federal Government have remained consistently at a high level.

The stacked column graph shows the investments in coastal protection in millions of euros from federal funds, Land funds with additional public funding, and EU funds in the time series from 2000 to 2017. The expenditures fluctuate from year to year; they were highest in 2012 and lowest in 2006. There is no trend in any of the three categories. In all years, the share of federal funds is the highest.
WW-R-4: Investment in coastal protection

The stacked column graph shows the investments in coastal protection in millions of euros from federal funds, Land funds with additional public funding, and EU funds in the time series from 2000 to 2017. The expenditures fluctuate from year to year; they were highest in 2012 and lowest in 2006. There is no trend in any of the three categories. In all years, the share of federal funds is the highest.

Source: BMEL (IASCP reporting)
 

Coastal protection requires extensive investments

In view of rising sea levels and the expected increase in frequency and intensity of storm surges, the German coastal regions, too, are confronted with an increased risk of flooding. In Germany those areas are considered at risk if they are, on the North Sea coast, up to 5 metres above sea level, and on the Baltic Sea coast, if they are up to 3 metres above sea level. This covers an area of approximately 13,900 square kilometres with 3.2 million inhabitants; this area represents economic values of 900 billion Euros20. Cities close to the coast such as Hamburg, Bremen, Kiel, Lübeck, Rostock and Greifswald are particularly at risk.

In order to protect the infrastructure, buildings and human life in those exposed coastal regions from increasingly intense floodwater events in future, the existing technical structures installed for protection from floodwater will have to be adapted to changed climate conditions.

Some of the coastal protection measures are e.g. the construction of new and the reinforcement and heightening of extant dykes, as well as the enhancement of embankment protection installations, the application of beach nourishment or the construction or reinforcement of storm surge barrages. Every one of those measures constitutes an intervention which has to be subject to authorisation, because they entail the impairment or irrevocable loss of mudflats, eelgrass beds, salt marshes or dunes. Another measure under discussion is the restoration of localised floodplains which were lost in the past owing to damming; this might be remedied by realigning or slotting dykes. The different coastal protection measures are accompanied by the designation of various priority and restricted areas for coastal protection and coastal floodwater protection respectively.

In 2011 the Länder of Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg- Vorpommern amended their design methodology for coastal protection measures on the coast of the Baltic Sea. As part of the implementation of the FRMD which makes the consideration of climate-change related projections of sea level rise mandatory, a new guideline for designing coastal protection structures was introduced. This guideline now conforms, in principle, with the approach taken by those Länder which adjoin the North Sea coast. In this light, owing to climate change it is estimated that sea levels will rise by 50 cm in the course of the next one hundred years. The new design method has a considerable impact on medium-term action planning. For dykes and steel structures or reinforced concrete structures this partly means heightening the structures, while for coastal protection dunes including their shore and shoreface areas this will potentially involve more frequent and, in terms of volume, more extensive beach nourishment operations. Moreover, in Schleswig-Holstein the construction of dykes has been changed in such a way that in future it will be relatively easy and inexpensive to heighten them further.

In Germany technical measures for coastal protection are financed predominantly by the IASCP. The EU’s share of financing these measures amounts to between 5 and 13 %. The Federal Government and the Länder bear the bulk of the funding, sharing the investment cost at a ratio of 70 to 30. The objective is to speed up, or in individual cases, to supplement the ongoing reinforcement of coastal protection structures; the Federal Government therefore provides the coastal Länder with an additional 25 million Euros per annum via an IASCP special framework plan over the years 2009 to 2025 for coastal protection measures resulting from climate change.

These coastal protection measures which qualify for IASCP funding include for instance the construction of new, and the reinforcement and heightening of extant, coastal protection structures as well as dykes, barrages, groynes, breakwaters and other coastal flood defences. Likewise, operations in foreshores in front of dykes without embankment foreland up to 400 metres and beach nourishment qualify for funding. Other elements qualifying for funding include the essential acquisition of land as well as nature conservation actions and landscape maintenance necessitated by coastal protection measures.

After the investments in coastal protection made between 2000 and 2006 declined to about half, the expenditure has increased again since 2007, reaching just under 200 million Euros in 2012. Ever since, the annual expenditure from funds provided by the Federal Government, the EU and the Länder has oscillated around a total of 150 million Euros per annum. Investments by the Federal Government remained relatively consistent between 2009 and 2017 with just above 100 million Euros.

In 2012, the State of Schleswig-Holstein prioritised, within the general plan for coastal protection, funding for dyke reinforcement projects – a total of 93 kilometres. In this context, a total of just nine kilometres of dyke structures were reinforced by late 2017: on Nordstrand, on Sylt, in Büsum and in the Hattstedter Marsch. Those dykes were built on the basis of the so-called climate profile. In this process, the dykes were designed in a way to ensure that if required at a later date, they can be extended at the top in order to heighten the dyke by approximately 1 to 1.5 metres. Between 2012 and end 2017 approximately 292 million Euros were invested in coastal protection in Schleswig-Holstein. Apart from strengthening dykes, the funding was invested in the application of beach nourishment on Sylt and Föhr, construction of roads and paths along the dykes, revetments, groynes, breakwaters, reinforcement of barrages, work on the reinstatement of foreland areas, mound reinforcement; as well as measures taken by water and soil associations or municipalities.

20 maribus gGmbH (Hrsg.) 2010: World Ocean Review: Mit den Meeren leben. Hamburg, 240 pp.
http://worldoceanreview.com/herunterladen/

 

Interfaces

WW-I-8: Sea levels

WW-I-9: Intensity of storm surges

WW-R-2: Investment in inland watercourse flood protection - case study

RO-R-3: Priority and restricted areas for (preventive) flood control

 

Objectives

Making additional efforts regarding the protection of coastal areas; developing new forms – including especially passive forms – of safeguarding measures for islands and coasts (DAS,  ch. 3.2.14)

Strategic management of coastal areas (IKZM, page 6ff.)