Conference Presentation Disaster risk reduction for waterfront urban areas: The case of water level rise adaptation methods in Baku, Geneva and San Francisco ALIYEV, Tural Abstract The effects of climate change are impacting the cities and the concerns about the cities future in terms of resilience are increasing. Increasing complexity of disasters impacts the coastal zones of cities, which are predominantly characterized by high density of land use and population. Almost 65 percent of cities with populations above 2.5 million today are located along the world coasts and sixty percent of the world's population already lives in coastal areas (Xalxo, 2007). In addition to the risks associated to coastal cities (irregularities of precipitation, cyclic changing of water level) the Caspian Sea has its particular risks related to the patterns of urban development and industrial development (e.g. oil exploration) on the Sea. The rapid rise of Caspian Sea water level (about 2.25 meters since 1978) has caused much concern to all five littoral countries, primarily because flooding has destroyed or damaged buildings and other engineering structures, roads, beaches and farm lands in the coastal zone (Roshan et al., 2012). Today, the Caspian Sea water level (attitude -28) can possibly rise to a maximum of [...] Reference ALIYEV, Tural. Disaster risk reduction for waterfront urban areas: The case of water level rise adaptation methods in Baku, Geneva and San Francisco. In: Understanding the problems of Inland Waters: Case Study for the Caspian Basin, Baku, Azerbaijan, 12-14 May, 2018, p. pp. 296-297 Available at: http://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:112089 Disclaimer: layout of this document may differ from the published version. 1 / 1 UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEMS OF INLAND WATERS: CASE STUDY FOR THE CASPIAN BASIN (UPCB) 12-14 May 2018 Baku, Azerbaijan ORGANIZERS Inter-Islamic Science and Technology Network on Oceanography (INOC) Institute of Geography of Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (IG-ANAS) ORGANIZATION COMMITTEE Chair Ramiz Mammedov (Oceanography) Co-Chair Rauf Qardashov (Oceanography) Committee Members Amir Aliyev (Oceanography) Ferda Imanov (Hydrology) Zabit Allahverdiyev (Oceanology) Yelena Tagiyeva (Paleontology) Maharram Hasanov (Meteorology) Elnur Safarov (Oceanography) Asif Oruclu (International Relations and Diplomacy) SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE Iskandar Abdullaev (Environment) Nazim Abdullaev (Marine Sedimentology,Basin modeling/analysis,Geology&Geophysics) Arsen Adalbert (Space Oceanography/Remote Sensing) Kurbaniyazov Abilqazi (Sustainable Education) Elmira Aliyeva (Sedimentology and Paleogeography) Orhan Altan (Remote Sensing) Alexandre Hedjazi Babak (Global Governance & Urban Sustainability Transition) Michele Casanova (Archeorient) Jon Marco Church (Water Resources Management) Jean-Francois Cretaux (Space Hydrology) Namık Çağatay (Marine Geology) Günay Çifçi (Marine Geophysics) Mustafa Ergun (Marine Geosciences) Rauf Gardashov (Oceanography) Fakhraddin Gadirov (Geophysics) Hadi Gerivani (Marine Geophysics/Geodesy/Seismology) Magsad Gojamanov (Marine geophysics and Geodesy ) Harun Güçlüsoy (Marine Protection/Biology) Homayoun Khoshravan (Marine Geology and Coastal Management) Ferda Imanov (Hydrology) Siamak Jamshidi (Oceanography) Sergey Jilchov (Socio-economist) Ahmet Kideyş (Marine Biology) Andrey Kostyanoy (Oceanography) Catherine Kuzucuoğlu (Geography) I Hamid Alizadeh Ketek Lahijan (Marine Geology) Sergey Lebedev (Geophysics/Sea Level) Suzanne Leroy (Palynology/Past climate/Water level changes) Joanna Lhuillier (Archeorient) Kaveh Madani (Environmental System Analysis) Ramiz Mammedov (Oceanography) Catherine Marro (Archeorient) Marjan Mashkour (Archeozoology / Archeobotanique) Ahmetkal Medeu (Geography) Ali Mehdinia (Marine Pollution) Sergei Monaxov (Sea Level/Coordinator of CASPKOM) Mohuddin Munawar (Ecology) Mohammadreza Allahyar (Coastal Engineering and Infrastructure Development) Gökdeniz Neşer (Marine Transport) Harun Özdaş (Marine Archeology) Münir Öztürk (Botany/Ecosystem) Maxim Petrov (Aral Sea Expert) Shavkat Rakhmatullaev (Freelance Expert) Rodrigo Abarca del Rio (Climatology, Geodesy and Surveying, Hydrology) Sassan Saatchi (Biology/Remote Sensing) Said Safarov (Climatology, Meteorology, Atmosphere Physics and Radio- Meteorology) Javid Safarov (Thermodynamics) Mamed Salmanov (Microbiology) Stefano Vignudelli (Remote Sensing/Satellite Altimetry) Tamara Alekseevna Yanina (Sedimentology) Vincent Olivier (Geomorphology) Özdoğan Yilmaz (Geophysics) Nasser Hadjizadeh Zaker (Oceanography/Coastal Engineering) Igor Sergeyevich Zonn (Caspian Expert) II Conference Venue The Caspian Sea, like the Aral Sea, Black Sea, Lake Urmia, and Lake Van, is a remnant of the ancient Paratethys Sea. It became landlocked about 5.5 million years ago due to tectonic uplift and a fall in sea level. During warm and dry climatic periods, the landlocked sea almost dried up, depositing evaporitic sediments like halite that were covered by wind-blown deposits and were sealed off as an evaporate sink when cool, wet climates refilled the basin. One of the most vulnerable ecosystems to climate change is the enclosed and inland seas. The climate change trends observed in these waters are generally more complex than that characteristic for the open ocean. The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed inland body of water on earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. It is in an endorheic basin (it has no outflows) and located between Europe and Asia. It is bounded to the northeast by Kazakhstan, to the northwest by Russia, to the west by Azerbaijan, to the south by Iran, and t o the southeast by Turkmenistan. It is now -28 m below the normal sea level. Due to the current inflow of fresh water, the Caspian Sea is a freshwater lake in its northern portions. It is more saline on the Iranian shore, where the catchment basin contributes little flow. Currently, the mean salinity of the Caspian is one third that of the earth's oceans. The Karabogazgöl embayment, which dried up when water flow from the main body of the Caspian was blocked in the 1980s but has since been restored, routinely exceeds oceanic salinity by a factor of 10. The Aral Sea was an endorheic lake lying between Kazakhstan (Aktobe and Kyzylorda provinces) in the north and Uzbekistan (Karakalpakstan autonomous region) in the south. The nam e roughly translates as "Sea of Islands", referring to over 1,100 islands that once dotted its waters; in Old Turkic Aral means "island". The Aral Sea drainage basin encompasses Uzbekistan and parts of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. The shrinking of the Aral Sea has been called "one of the planet's worst environmental disasters". The r egion's once- prosperous fishing industry has been essentially destroyed, bringing unemployment and economic hardship. The Aral Sea region is also heavily polluted, with consequential serious public health problems. The depar ture of the sea has reportedly also caused local climate change, with summers becoming hotter and drier, and winters colder and longer. In the late 1990s, Lake Urmia, in north-western Iran, was twice as large as Luxembourg and t he largest salt-water lake in the Middle East. Since then it has shrunk substantially, and was sliced in half in 2008, with consequences uncertain to this day, by a 15-km causeway designed to shorten the travel time between the cities of Urmia and Tabriz. Historically, the lake attracted migratory birds including flamingos, pelicans, ducks and egrets. It’s drying up, or desiccation, is undermining the local food web, especially by destroying one of the world’s largest natural habitats of the brine shrimp Artemia, a hardy species that can tolerate salinity levels of 340 III grams per liter, more than eight times saltier than ocean water. Desiccation will increase the frequency of salt storms that sweep across the exposed lakebed, diminishing the productivity of surrounding agricultural lands and encouraging farmers to move away. Poor air, land, and water quality all have serious health effects including respiratory and eye diseases. As a starting point of the proposed Project by the Riparian Countries of the Caspian Sea on a theme of “Dynamics of the Caspian Sea Water Level Fluctuations During Holocene Until the Present Affected by the Climate Change: Impact on the Ecology and Socio-Economics of the Region”, the aim is to increase the exchange of the international scientific cooperation on C aspian Sea, Aral Sea, and Urmia and Van lakes. This International Conference “Understanding the Problems of Inland Waters: Case Study for the Caspian Basin" will take place in Baku during 12-14 May 2018. IV SCIENTIFIC THEMES (I) The impact of climate change on: sea level, bio-resources, bio-diversity, marine invasive species, ecology and food web: past, present and future. (II) Climate and hydro-meteorological features of the basin. 1 (III) International cooperation, socio-economical development, Industry and ener gy- food, water-ecosystem nexus and the state of fishes and f isheries in the Caspian region. (IV) Physical and chemical characteristics of the Caspian Sea. (V) Geology, geomorphology and paleogeography. (VI) Marine geophysics, seismology, seismic hazard assessment. (VII) The application of remote sensing and GIS on investigation of modern climatic trends. (VIII) Archeology and paleoarcheology of the Caspian region. (IX) Sustainable development, disaster and risks of the Caspian Sea Region. (X) Changing ecosystem