Breakwaters are subject to coastal storms but also to climate change. The stochastic nature of both wave loading and structural response is different nowadays (and in the near future) from those at the time they were designed and the main investments are related to conservation and maintenance. Therefore, an updated risk analysis is needed in order to decide about adaptation or mitigation actions.
In many countries worldwide, a strong economical effort in the construction of coastal infrastructures has already been faced. Nowadays, due to the financial crisis, most of the efforts are devoted to the conservation and maintenance of coastal structures instead of building new ones. Furthermore, the expected variations in sea level and met-ocean conditions due to climate change modify the stochastic nature of both wave loading and structural response which is different nowadays from that at the time the structures were designed. These facts encourage the coastal engineering community towards the development of reliable risk management and decision-making tools. A key point in the decision-making process is how to prioritize investments when deciding about adaptation or mitigation alternatives. This paper aims at providing a proposal including tips to select among the possible alternatives based on risk analysis and how each alternative modifies the risk level compared to the do-nothing alternative. An example on a Spanish port will be provided for better understanding.
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