Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 15, 1695–1709, 2015 www.nat-hazards-earth-syst-sci.net/15/1695/2015/ doi:10.5194/nhess-15-1695-2015 © Author(s) 2015. CC Attribution 3.0 License. Impacts on wave-driven harbour agitation due to climate change in Catalan ports J. P. Sierra1,2, M. Casas-Prat1,2,a, M. Virgili1, C. Mösso1,2, and A. Sánchez-Arcilla1,2 1Laboratori d’Enginyeria Marítima, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya BarcelonaTech, Jordi Girona 1–3, Mòdul D1, Campus Nord, 08003 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain 2Centre Internacional d’Investigació dels Recursos Costaners (CIIRC), Jordi Girona 1–3, Mòdul D1, Campus Nord, 08003 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain anow at: Environment Canada, Science and Technology Branch, Toronto, Canada Correspondence to: J. P. Sierra (
[email protected]) Received: 15 December 2014 – Published in Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss.: 4 February 2015 Revised: 5 June 2015 – Accepted: 14 July 2015 – Published: 3 August 2015 Abstract. The objective of the present work is to analyse 1 Introduction how changes in wave patterns due to the effect of climate change can affect harbour agitation (oscillations within the port due to wind waves). The study focuses on 13 harbours Climate change has become a major focus of attention be- located on the Catalan coast (NW Mediterranean) using a cause of its potential hazards and impacts on our environment methodology with general applicability. To obtain the pat- in the near future. In coastal areas, vulnerability assessments terns of agitation, a Boussinesq-type model is used, which focus mainly on sea level rise (SLR), although other non- is forced at the boundaries by present/future offshore wave climatic drivers (e.g.