Assessing Climate Change Impacts, Sea Level Rise and Storm Surge Risk in Port Cities

This study illustrates a methodology to assess economic impacts of climate change at city scale,focusing on sea level rise and storm surge. It is based on a statistical analysis of past storm surges in thestudied city, matched to a geographical-information analysis of the population and asset exposure in thecity, for various sea levels and storm surge characteristics. An assessment of direct losses in case of stormsurge (i.e. of the damages to buildings and building content) can then be computed and the correspondingindirect losses – in the form of production and job losses, reconstruction duration, amongst other loses –deduced, allowing a risk analysis of the effectiveness of coastal flood protections, including risk changesdue to climate change and sea level rise. This methodology is applied in the city of Copenhagen, capital ofDenmark, which is potentially vulnerable to the effects of variability in sea level, as a low lying city....

OECD Environment Working Papers

Assessing Climate Change Impacts, Sea Level Rise and Storm Surge Risk in Port Cities

A Case Study on Copenhagen