Historical analysis of storms events : case studies in France, England, Portugal and Italy

Emmanuel Garnier (1, 2) , Paolo Ciavola (3) , Tom Spencer (4) , Oscar Ferreira (3) , Clara Armaroli (3) , Andrew Mcivor (4)

1 LIENSs - LIttoral ENvironnement et Sociétés
2 LCE - Laboratoire Chrono-environnement (UMR 6249)
3 UniFE - Università degli Studi di Ferrara = University of Ferrara
4 CAM - University of Cambridge [UK]

An historical analysis of the occurrence of storms and their damage intensity is presented. The work analysed historical large-scale events from The Middle Ages to the 1960s at case study sites along the coasts of North Norfolk (UK); Charente-Maritime and Vendee (France); Cinque Terre-Liguria coast (Italy); Emilia-Romagna coast (Italy) and Ria Formosa (Portugal). The work presented here used a database of events built by the RISC-KIT project, including the characteristics of the storms as well as recorded human impacts. Historical records can provide an important test bed to complement the statistical analysis of the return period of events based on measurements and provide important indicators of past events and their impact that are no longer within the historical memories of resident populations and coastal managers.

Mots clés: Coastal storms; Storm surges; Historical archives

Domaines: Sciences de l'Homme et Société; Sciences de l'environnement; Environnement et Société; Milieux et Changements globaux

Emmanuel Garnier, Paolo Ciavola, Tom Spencer, Oscar Ferreira, Clara Armaroli, et al.. Historical analysis of storms events : case studies in France, England, Portugal and Italy. Coastal Engineering, 2018, 134, 134, pp.10-23. ⟨10.1016/j.coastaleng.2017.06.014⟩. ⟨hal-02543183⟩