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28Years (1999-Present)
(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)
Representative Publications
View All Publications27 April 2018 in Scientific Reports
Journal Article
Arjen P. LuijendijkGHGerben Hagenaars
Gerben Hagenaars
Roshanka RanasingheFBFedor Baart
Fedor Baart
GDGennadii Donchyts
Gennadii Donchyts
SAStefan Aarninkhof
Stefan Aarninkhof
Coastal zones constitute one of the most heavily populated and developed land zones in the world. Despite the utility and economic benefits that coasts provide, there is no reliable global-scale assessment of historical shoreline change trends. Here, via the use of freely available optical satellite images captured since 1984, in conjunction with sophisticated image interrogation and analysis methods, we present a global-scale assessment of the occurrence of sandy beaches and rates of shoreline change therein. Applying pixel-based supervised classification, we found that 31% of the world’s ice-free shoreline are sandy. The application of an automated shoreline detection method to the sandy shorelines thus identified resulted in a global dataset of shoreline change rates for the 33 year period 1984–2016. Analysis of the satellite derived shoreline data indicates that 24% of the world’s sandy beaches are eroding at rates exceeding 0.5 m/yr, while 28% are accreting and 48% are stable. The majority of the sandy shorelines in marine protected areas are eroding, raising cause for serious concern.
2 March 2020 in Nature Climate Change
Journal Article
MVMichalis Vousdoukas
Michalis VousdoukasRoshanka RanasingheLMLorenzo Mentaschi
Lorenzo MentaschiTPTheocharis Plomaritis
Theocharis PlomaritisPAPanagiotis Athanasiou
Panagiotis AthanasiouLFLuc Feyen
Luc Feyen
+1
30 July 2020 in Scientific Reports
Journal Article
Ebru Kirezci
Ian YoungRoshanka RanasingheSMSanne Muis
Sanne MuisRNRobert J. Nicholls
Robert J. Nicholls
JHJochen Hinkel
Jochen Hinkel
+1
Global models of tide, storm surge, and wave setup are used to obtain projections of episodic coastal flooding over the coming century. The models are extensively validated against tide gauge data and the impact of uncertainties and assumptions on projections estimated in detail. Global “hotspots” where there is projected to be a significant change in episodic flooding by the end of the century are identified and found to be mostly concentrated in north western Europe and Asia. Results show that for the case of, no coastal protection or adaptation, and a mean RCP8.5 scenario, there will be an increase of 48% of the world’s land area, 52% of the global population and 46% of global assets at risk of flooding by 2100. A total of 68% of the global coastal area flooded will be caused by tide and storm events with 32% due to projected regional sea level rise.
1 September 2016 in Earth-Science Reviews
Journal Article
Roshanka RanasingheThe world's coastlines are shaped by mean sea level, wave conditions, storm surge, and riverflows. Climate change (CC) driven variations in these environmental forcings will inevitably have a profound effect on the coastal zone. Given the continued growth of coastal communities and extremely high value of coastal assets worldwide, effective adaptation measures underpinned by reliable coastal CC impact assessments are essential to avoid massive future coastal zone losses. This review aims to promote the adoption of best practice in local scale assessments of potential physical impacts of CC on open sandy coasts by (a) summarising the potential first order physical impacts of CC, (b) suggesting a standard modelling framework for local scale CC impact assessments, (c) identifying future research needs to facilitate the effective implementation of the prescribed modelling framework, (d) suggesting ways to address the identified research needs, and (e) discussing how existing methods/tools may be used for CC impact assessments until more advanced methods/tools are developed
30 August 2021 in Nature Climate Change
Journal Article
CTClaudia Tebaldi
Claudia TebaldiRoshanka RanasingheMVMichalis Vousdoukas
Michalis VousdoukasDRD. J. Rasmussen
D. J. RasmussenBVBen Vega-Westhoff
Ben Vega-Westhoff
LMLorenzo Mentaschi
Lorenzo Mentaschi +3
The Paris agreement focused global climate mitigation policy on limiting global warming to 1.5 or 2 °C above pre-industrial levels. Consequently, projections of hazards and risk are increasingly framed in terms of global warming levels rather than emission scenarios. Here, we use a multimethod approach to describe changes in extreme sea levels driven by changes in mean sea level associated with a wide range of global warming levels, from 1.5 to 5 °C, and for a large number of locations, providing uniform coverage over most of the world’s coastlines. We estimate that by 2100 ~50% of the 7,000+ locations considered will experience the present-day 100-yr extreme-sea-level event at least once a year, even under 1.5 °C of warming, and often well before the end of the century. The tropics appear more sensitive than the Northern high latitudes, where some locations do not see this frequency change even for the highest global warming levels.
18 June 2021 in Nature Communications
Journal Article
RARafael Almar
Rafael AlmarRoshanka RanasingheEBErwin Bergsma
Erwin BergsmaHDHarold Diaz
Harold Diaz
AMAngelique Melet
Angelique MeletEKElodie Kestenare
Elodie Kestenare +5
Climate change and anthropogenic pressures are widely expected to exacerbate coastal hazards such as episodic coastal flooding. This study presents global-scale potential coastal overtopping estimates, which account for not only the effects of sea level rise and storm surge, but also for wave runup at exposed open coasts. Here we find that the globally aggregated annual overtopping hours have increased by almost 50% over the last two decades. A first-pass future assessment indicates that globally aggregated annual overtopping hours will accelerate faster than the global mean sea-level rise itself, with a clearly discernible increase occurring around mid-century regardless of climate scenario. Under RCP 8.5, the globally aggregated annual overtopping hours by the end of the 21st-century is projected to be up to 50 times larger compared to present-day. As sea level continues to rise, more regions around the world are projected to become exposed to coastal overtopping.
About Me
Dr. Roshanka Ranasinghe holds the AXA Chair in Climate Change Impacts and Coastal Risk at the Department of Coastal and Urban Risk & Resilience, IHE Delft, and at the Department of Water Engineering and Management, University of Twente. He is also a Senior Specialist at the Reslient Ports and Coasts Department (Hydraulic Engineering Unit) at Deltares, and holds an Honorary Professor position at the University of Melbourne (Australia). He obtained his Bachelor of Science Engineering (1st Class Honours) from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, in 1993, and his PhD in Coastal Engineering and Oceanography from the Centre for Water Research, University of Western Australia, in 1998. Since then, he has worked in the academic and government sectors in Australia, USA, and the Netherlands. To date, Rosh has published over 200 peer reviewed articles and delivered numerous presentations around the world. He is regularly invited to provide expert advice on adaptation to climate change and coastal zone management by national and local governments and international agencies. Rosh has supervised/co-supervised 10 post-doctoral fellows, 20+ PhD candidates, and numerous MSc students to date and has lead several capacity development projects in Sri Lanka, India, VietNam, Thailand, and Sao Tome and Principe. He was also a Contributing Author in the IPCC Special Report on Oceans and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC).