The lives, infrastructure, and natural environments that countless coastal communities around the world rely on are becoming increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. This pending change can feel so vast and intangible that it is often difficult for people to imagine its effects over the longer term.
Understanding and adapting to risk
Understanding and adapting to global climate change will involve society overcoming complex social, political, and engineering challenges requiring us to address questions about what these risks are, how severe the impacts are likely to be, and when and how we need to act. Understanding and communicating these dimensions will improve decision making and reduce uncertainty of the impacts on ageing global infrastructure, exposed communities, and most fundamentally natural capital. All are vital in achieving coastal resilience as without these factors, sustainable co-existence with this change will likely not be achievable.
Asset management tools like Fugro Roames supports the understanding of physical risk exposure to an asset
Climate change has no boundaries, and neither should Geo-data
Gathering Geo-data across the land and marine interface will be vital in measuring and managing these geohazards and risks to assets. With the development of analytical technologies organising and unlocking insights from this data, such as, the digital twin movement will allow us to break down barriers to Geo-data and the insights we gain to ensure vital information is delivered when and where it is needed. This can be achieved through:
Fugro’s approach to building coastal resilience
The task of building coastal resilience will require support based upon three key pillars:
Supporting coastal communities like those living on small islands within the Pacific can take many forms, including reconnaissance and early warning systems, improving coastal flood and erosion protection, and providing emergency response. Changing people’s behaviours towards these risks is also just as important. Delivering insights through early engagement and visualisation tools can inform communities about coastal hazards and make sure that vulnerable communities who are at risk are well prepared.
Since the industrial revolution and with the growth of developing nations in the late 20th century, global construction within our coastal urban areas increased. A vast amount of existing coastal infrastructure is now ageing and is beyond its intended design life. With growing environmental stress being placed on this infrastructure, the need to monitor assets and ground conditions is growing rapidly. The need for digital twins that integrates ground and asset information is key to identifying the relationship of these geohazards and asset risks.
Each of these pillars will be further explored in forthcoming Fugro World articles
Digital twins can support organised and visualised risk analysis to deliver multiple benefits including vital early warnings
Responsible land development depends on accurate environmental, geotechnical and geophysical data. We both acquire and interpret this data, using our expertise, in situ testing and world-class laboratory facilities to turn data into valuable knowledge.
Our work helps reduce uncertainty related to ground conditions and the marine environment, helping clients to manage risks and save costs through improved project reliability.