Climate Change Impacts And Adaptation Strategies For Coastal Infrastructure, Water Resources, And Waste Management Along The Coasts

The book ‘Climate change impacts and adaptation strategies for coastal infrastructure, water resources, and waste management along the coasts’ offers a critical exploration of the profound challenges that climate change poses to Indian coastline districts. It focuses on reducing uncertainties in predicting coastal dynamics due to climate change impacts, specifically along India’s coastlines.

Organized into nine individual chapters, this book covers key topics such as wave prediction with a deep understanding of wave dynamics, inundation due to storm surge and rainfall, climate change and coastal hazard vulnerability assessments, and adaptation strategies to reduce uncertainties for the existing coastal defense systems in an urban environment. The initial chapters focus on improving the efficiency of predictive models to address knowledge gaps, gradually moving to practical solutions such as promoting soft measures and enhancing local community engagement in adaptation planning. The book highlights key findings, including added uncertainty in water availability, increased vulnerability due to overlooked socio-economic systems, the rigidity of urban infrastructure (like wastewater systems), and heightened risk from delayed cyclone landfalls. In addition to addressing these gaps, this book also explores options such as soft, nature-based solutions and decentralized urban systems in densely populated and highly vulnerable populations in the local context.

By highlighting critical knowledge gaps, the volume offers comprehensive, research-backed approaches to effectively address uncertainty. Readers will gain the technical foundation for strategic coastal adaptation, resilient planning, and proactive disaster management, enabling them to implement low-impact, efficient solutions that secure the future of our coastal regions.

Dr. S.A. Sannasiraj is Chair Professor in the Department of Ocean Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology Madras. With over 25 years of experience in teaching, research, industrial consultancy, and academic administration, he has made significant contributions to the field of coastal and ocean engineering. He has authored over 250 publications in reputed national and international journals and conferences. His areas of expertise include the design of coastal and harbor structures, wind-wave modeling, breaking wave impact, FEM and SPH modeling of nonlinear free surface waves, climate change impacts on coasts, and wave and tidal energy systems. Dr. Sannasiraj currently serves as Vice-Chair of the Asia and Pacific Division of the International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research (IAHR) since January 2023, following his earlier term as Member from 2019 to 2022. He has also been appointed as Advisor to the IAHR Southern-India Young Professionals Network (IAHR SI YPN), effective August 2024.

Prof. B. S. Murty (Bhallamudi S. Murty) served as Chair Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras until his retirement. He obtained his Ph.D. from Washington State University, USA (1989), and his M.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (1984). Prior to joining IIT Madras in 1998, he was Faculty Member at IIT Kanpur (1989–1998). Prof. Murty’s research expertise spans computational hydraulics, contaminant transport modeling, pipeline hydraulics, and water resource management. Over his academic career, he has guided and co-guided 13 Ph.D., 4 M.S. (by research), and 48 M.Tech. students and has authored or co-authored five book chapters and over 75 papers in reputed international journals. He has led several sponsored research projects funded by DST, the Ministry of Water Resources, SASE, and the Indo-German Science and Technology Centre.