Institute of River and Coastal Engineering

In the past, storm surges have frequently led to major damages along the German coastline. The expected climate change and associated increasing frequency of extreme storm surges may lead to larger storm surge hazards than have been observed in the past. Therefore,  the  German  XtremRisK-Project  aims  to  improve  the  understanding  of extreme  storm  surge  predictions,  including  the  joint  occurrence  of  extreme  water level  and  sea  states.  It  will  also  provide  tools  to  exemplarily  quantify  the  overall flood  risk  for  an  open  coast  (Sylt  Island)  and  an  estuarine  area (Hamburg).

The project XtremRisk had launched in October 2008 and was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). It  brought  together  scientists  from  different  German Universities  (Braunschweig,  Siegen,  Hamburg)  as  well  as  from  the  Agency  of Roads, Bridges and Water in Hamburg. The end-users of the prospective results for Hamburg (Hamburg Port Authority, Agency of Roads, Bridges and Water Hamburg) and  the  Island  of  Sylt  (Schleswig-Holstein  Agency  for  Coastal  Defence,  National Park and Marine Conservation) were also involved as cooperative partners.

The overall aim of the project is to improve understanding with respect to the uncertainties of  storm surge  predictions,  the  influences  of  morphological  changes,  and  the  joint effect of extreme water level and sea waves as well as to quantify the overall flood risk for an open coast and an estuarine area.