On the relative importance of the climate change factors along the river Scheldt considering climate scenarios for upstream inland and downstream coastal (mean sea level and surge) boundary conditions

To improve on the efficacy of flood risk mitigation measures, it is essential to investigate the relative importance of the future impact pressures. This is more so in areas which are found to be hot spots for flooding. One such area was identified in the Scheldt region located in Belgium. The Dendermonde area is a place where both the downstream coastal and the upstream river flow boundary conditions interact and jointly control the floodrisk. Downstream of this area, the coastal level changes include both the sea level rise and storm surge changes due to climate change impacts on the wind climate over the North Atlantic and North Sea region. Upstream of the Dendermonde area lies the Dender river which introduces an extra pressure on the Dendermonde area. Against this back drop, impact analysis was performed using a hydrodynamic model that accounts for such changes. The climate data for future scenarios were extracted from the climate databases PRUDENCE (http://prudence.dmi.dk),ENSEMBLES (http://www.ensembles-eu.org/), IPCC AR4 (www-pcmdi.llnl.gov/ipcc/about_ipcc.php) and CERA (CLM from MPI-M/MaD)