Key research issues of coastal storm analysis
Abstract Taking into consideration the changing climate, researchers are mainly interested in measuring this change in many different sectors. Regarding the coastal areas, the effects are related inter alias to the sea level rise, but also the increase and the severity of storms incidence. In conjunction with the astronomical tide, coastal storms can cause extreme wave runup and overtopping phenomena in ports, and coastal structures, the consequences of which may be disastrous, mainly affecting the operation and the reliability of infrastructure. Consequently, the analysis of coastal storms is necessary for any future technical study in coastal engineering, for the design of port and coastal structures and the coastal management also. Coastal storms as multivariate and extreme events necessitate a detailed and multivariate analysis of many parameters. This work aims to review and highlight the most significant issues in coastal storm analysis, to summarise the knowledge and the current trends of coastal storms research, by exploring the scientific background through a literature overview. A guiding framework of storm analysis should include the most important aspects of this work which are: the coastal storm definition, the description of their severity, the understanding of the synoptic systems formation, the storm surges and the time-series analysis, the thresholds for their identification, the impacts, their classification, and finally the impacts of coastal storms on coastal human population.