Tidal estuaries are important lifelines for the hinterland. They provide valuable and unique habitats influenced by low and high tides, and characterised by the transition from limnic to marine living conditions. These enable the occurrence of many species adapted to these special habitat conditions, including endemic species such as the hemlock water fennel (Oenanthe conioides). At the same time, estuaries are of great economic importance, as towns, businesses, ports and important trade routes have developed along their course. As storm surges also pass through tidal estuaries into the hinterland, they can cause great damage if the hinterland is not adequately protected by dikes, walls, flood plains and retention areas, as well as by dams and drainage structures.
Climate change has many consequences for estuarine systems, such as future sea level rise and an increased risk of storm surges. The research project aims to identify and analyse possible options for future flood protection in the tide-influenced area of the Elbe River. These will be evaluated comparatively from a hydraulic engineering, water management, ecological and economic perspective in order to derive options for future action. The Elbe River was chosen as an example as the largest German tidal estuary with the Hamburg metropolitan region.
In the Ecology sub-project, we are investigating how the habitats and landscape dynamics along the Tidal Elbe, as well as the distribution of estuary-typical species, will develop and change under different climate change and coastal management scenarios. We are using different approaches to ecological modelling. At the level of individual species, we work primarily with species distribution models; we consider both aquatic and terrestrial organisms (e.g. the macrozoobenthos, fish, dragonflies, birds and vascular plants). To predict future changes in coastal habitats and landscape dynamics, we so-called state-and-transition models. A further task is the evaluation of the different management scenarios according to the requirements of the EU Habitats Directive and the Water Framework Directive.
The technical, hydraulic engineering and hydrological aspects are dealt with by the Technical University of Hamburg (TUHH), and the economic aspect is covered by the Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW).
Duration: 15.11.2021 - 14.11.2024.
Project Management: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Peter Fröhle (TUHH), TUBS: Prof. Dr. Boris Schröder-Esselbach
Researchers: Dr. Swantje Löbel, Dr. Diana Goertzen, Viviane Borchert, Laura Guderjan
Funding: Departmental Research Plan of the UBA/BMU