Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 3117–3139, 2019 https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-3117-2019 © Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Assessing the characteristics and drivers of compound flooding events around the UK coast Alistair Hendry1, Ivan D. Haigh1, Robert J. Nicholls2, Hugo Winter3, Robert Neal4, Thomas Wahl5, Amélie Joly-Laugel3, and Stephen E. Darby6 1Ocean and Earth Science, National Oceanography Centre Southampton, University of Southampton, Waterfront Campus, European Way, Southampton, SO14 3ZH, UK 2School of Engineering, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK 3Natural Hazards and Environmental Group, EDF Energy R&D UK Centre, Croydon, CRO 2AJ, UK 4Department of Weather Science, Met Office, Exeter, EX1 3PB, UK 5Civil, Environmental, and Construction Engineering & National Center for Integrated Coastal Research, University of Central Florida, 12800 Pegasus Drive, Suite 211, Orlando, FL 32816-2450, USA 6Geography and Environmental Sciences, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK Correspondence: Alistair Hendry (
[email protected]) Received: 20 December 2018 – Discussion started: 31 January 2019 Accepted: 7 May 2019 – Published: 23 July 2019 Abstract. In low-lying coastal regions, flooding arises from logical differences in storm characteristics. On the western oceanographic (storm surges plus tides and/or waves), fluvial coast of the UK, the storms that generate high skew surges (increased river discharge), and/or pluvial (direct surface run- and high river discharge are typically similar in character- off) sources. The adverse consequences of a flood can be dis- istics and track across the UK on comparable pathways. In proportionately large when these different sources occur con- contrast, on the eastern coast, the storms that typically gen- currently or in close succession, a phenomenon that is known erate high skew surges are mostly distinct from the types as “compound flooding”.