These results could help improve early warning systems and evacuation planning
- Tom Spencer
The wet and windy weather that has battered Britain’s coasts this winter has brought misery to many, but for researchers at the University at Cambridge the storm damage is providing vital data that could help improve future flood warnings and emergency planning.
On 5 December 2013, coastal communities along the North Norfolk coast were threatened by a significant storm surge – the result of low atmospheric pressure (which causes sea level to rise) combined with high winds pushing up the sea surface as they blow water towards the coast.
According to Dr Tom Spencer of the Department of Geography’s Cambridge Coastal Research Unit: “The southern North Sea is very vulnerable to storm surges because of its shallow water, and winds blowing from north to south funnel the sea into the narrowing basin near the Straits of Dover.”
Predicting the impact of storm surges on coastal areas like North Norfolk, which is lined with barrier islands and gravel spits – and cut by tidal inlets bordered by mudflats and saltmarshes, is challenging. To find out how these features affected the water levels and waves that hit the area’s coastal settlements during the storm, the team from Cambridge and Birkbeck, University of London took to the road.
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Image: Stranded boat at Blakeney after storm surge
Credit: I Moeller
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
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