Dorset is a county in Southwest England on the English Channel coast. Its Jurassic coast is included as a UNESCO World Heritage site. It represents a key tourist destination with a high economic value (2019: £1.8bn >30m visitors, 41k jobs), with multiple areas exhibiting vulnerability to climate-related hazards throughout the year. The resident population is about 770,000.
Investigated climate extremes
The area is affected by multiple precipitation-induced hazards (intense rainfall, coastal/fluvial/pluvial flooding, landslide, storms and storm surges, coastal flooding) which cause significant impacts to communities. These hazards can occur as singular events or as compound/cascading events. Similar multi-risk conditions occur in many other locations in the coastal cities of Northern Europe.
Main needs
- To leverage new and novel methods in monitoring, nowcasting and weather forecasting to support improved hazard and impact assessment across the short-term and into the climate timeframe.
- To identify ways to improve the understanding of the skill of hazard and impact forecasts under different synoptic conditions.
- To increase people’s knowledge about the potential impact of climate change on precipitation induced hazards.
- To improve product visualisation, information content and dissemination for hazard and impact models.
