Abstract:
Continental Portugal presents an extensive and diversified coastal zone which concentrates the main public and
private infrastructures of the different economic sectors, as well as the main critical infrastructures. This area is
also characterized by a high population density, being a differentiated territory in geophysical, biological and
landscape terms. The wave regime is highly energetic, and storms are frequent. In the last decades, the coast of
continental Portugal has been affected numerous times by overtopping and coastal flooding processes. Identifying
the critical coastal typologies affected by flooding can contribute to a comprehensive flood risk management
framework for the Portuguese coastal zones. Hence, a historical database of coastal flooding occurrences
was created for the period 1980–2018 based on national and regional newspapers. For this period 650 occurrences
were identified as well as 1708 impacts associated with them. In terms of impacts, the typologies associated
with public areas, human impacts, the natural system, environmental degradation and buildings stand out.
Results provide relevant temporal and spatial information about coastal historical flood occurrences related to
extreme storm events and associated impacts, and contribute to the design of a risk framework.
