IES\R1\221010: Characterizing the risk of flooding and pollutant propagation in coastal areas in Brazil

International Exchanges 2022 Round 1 - The Royal Society : £2990

Increased flooding due to sea-level rise (SLR) is a major natural hazard that coastal regions will face in the 21st century, with potentially high socio-economic impacts. Furthermore, industrial spillages, effluents from sewage, refineries, urban and storm water runoff or leakages from broken ships can cause water quality issues, especially if the contaminants are dispersed under specific wave conditions, generating impacts on livelihoods of people, public health and local water quality. The aims of this project align with SDG 6 (Clean water and sanitation), SDG 11 (Sustainable cities and communities), SDG 13 (“climate action”), SDG 14 (“life below water”) and SDG 15 (“Life on land”) and can be summarized as follows:
- Assess water quality in multiple case studies in coastal areas in the State of Bahia, characterizing the major sources of pollution. Datasets available via the Federal University of Bahia will be made accessible to the public and other academics to enable calibration and validation of numerical models.
- Experimentally replicate multiple hydraulic conditions typical of climate change future scenarios to identify the link between wave conditions and the spread of pollutants. This will enable a better understanding of wave and pollutant propagation in coastal areas. This will be conducted within the wave flume at Coventry University and will replicate an experimental testing campaign involving parameters and variables typical of coastal areas in the State of Bahia to be observed.
Result will facilitate the identification of which hard and soft engineering techniques could better perform to reduce flooding and pollutants propagation in coastal areas.