Introduction to RISC-KIT: Resilience-increasing strategies for coasts

Recent and historic low-frequency, high-impact events have demonstrated the flood risks faced by exposed coastal areas in Europe and beyond. These coastal zone risks are likely to increase in the future which requires a reevaluation of coastal disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategies and a new mix of PMP (prevention, e.g., dike protection; mitigation, e.g., limiting construction in flood-prone areas and eco-system based solutions; and preparedness, e.g., Early Warning Systems, EWS) measures. In response to these challenges, the RISC-KIT project has delivered a set of open-source and open-access methods, tools and management approaches to reduce risk and increase resilience to low-frequency, high impact hydro-meteorological events in the coastal zone (the RISC-toolKIT). These products enhance forecasting, prediction and early warning capabilities, improve the assessment of long-term coastal risk and optimise the mix of PMP-measures. In this paper an introduction is provided to the objectives, products, applications and lessons-learned of the RISC-KIT project, which are the subjects of this Special Issue. Subsequent papers provide details on the tools and their application on 10 case study sites in Europe.