A comprehensive review on structural tsunami countermeasures

Natural Hazards, vol. 113, pp. 1419–1449

Abstract

Abstract Tsunamis pose a substantial threat to coastal communities around the globe. To counter their effects, several hard and soft mitigation measures are applied, the choice of which essentially depends on regional expectations, historical experiences and economic capabilities. These countermeasures encompass hard measures to physically prevent tsunami impacts such as different types of seawalls or offshore breakwaters, as well as soft measures such as long-term tsunami hazard assessment, tsunami education, evacuation plans, early-warning systems or coastal afforestation. Whist hard countermeasures generally aim at reducing the inundation level and distance, soft countermeasures focus mainly on enhanced resilience and decreased vulnerability or nature-based wave impact mitigation. In this paper, the efficacy of hard countermeasures is evaluated through a comprehensive literature review. The recent large-scale tsunami events facilitate the assessment of performance characteristics of countermeasures and related damaging processes by in-situ observations. An overview and comparison of such damages and dependencies are given and new approaches for mitigating tsunami impacts are presented.

Authors 7

1. Jan Oetjen corresponding Aachen Institute of Hydraulic Engineering and Water Resources Management

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Hydraulic Engineering and Water Resources Management, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

   Institute of Hydraulic Engineering and Water Resources Management, RWTH Aachen University, 52056, Aachen, Germany

2. V. Sundar

   Indian Institute of Technology Madras

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Ocean Engineering, IIT Madras, Chennai, India

   Department of Ocean Engineering, IIT Madras, Chennai, 600036, India

3. Venkatachalam Sriram

   Indian Institute of Technology Madras

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Ocean Engineering, IIT Madras, Chennai, India

   Department of Ocean Engineering, IIT Madras, Chennai, 600036, India

4. Klaus R. Reicherter Aachen Neotectonics and Natural Hazards Group

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Neotectonics and Natural Hazards Group, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

   Neotectonics and Natural Hazards Group, RWTH Aachen University, 52056, Aachen, Germany

5. Max Engel

   Heidelberg University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Geography, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany

   Institute of Geography, Heidelberg University, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany

6. Holger Schüttrumpf Aachen Institute of Hydraulic Engineering and Water Resources Management

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Hydraulic Engineering and Water Resources Management, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

   Institute of Hydraulic Engineering and Water Resources Management, RWTH Aachen University, 52056, Aachen, Germany

7. Sannasi Annamalaisamy Sannasiraj

   Indian Institute of Technology Madras

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Ocean Engineering, IIT Madras, Chennai, India

   Department of Ocean Engineering, IIT Madras, Chennai, 600036, India