89 MARTINDALE CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF PRIVATE ENTERPRISE has a length of 14 km and a height of 4 m and protects the south of the city. This dike underwent extensive upgrades in 2012; a new 5.8-m-high and 7-km-long dike was created behind the old dike. The old dike was reinforced to almost 6 m high and was renovated to serve as a recreational area for the people from the community (Copenhagen Climate Adaptation Plan, 2015). This example, although located in a major city, offers a good idea of what could be readily accomplished in smaller cities or constricted areas at reasonable cost. Seaport protection Seaports present a special case regarding risk mitigation. They have long been designed to be resilient to stresses, because they are particularly exposed to a wide range of natural hazards due to their location. However, they are still susceptible to impacts of climatic hazards, such as SLRs, storm surges, waves, and strong winds. The most commonly used method to increase the protection of a port against long-term SLRs is to elevate the entirety of the port by placing layers of gravel and asphalt to elevate the ground level (Asariotis, 2021). The cost of elevating a port is difficult to approximate, given the many location-specific variables involved. Stanford University tackled the challenge in in 2015, estimating how the total costs (per square meter) for elevating a port rise with increases in elevation (Fig. 2). Although this cost estimation was done for ports in the US, for the purpose of estimating costs in Denmark, the same assumptions can be used for a preliminary analysis. The largest port in Denmark is in Aarhus, the second largest city in the country. The Port of Aarhus is Denmark’s leading container port, with a market share of 56%. The port handles approximately 9 million tons of cargo annually and is considered among the most efficient container handling ports in Europe. The port itself covers a surface area of 2,500,000 m2. If the port were elevated by 1 m, Figure 2 indicates the cost would be $150/m2 in a low estimation and $200/m2 in a high estimation (Hippe et al., 2015). Therefore, given the total area of the Port of Aarhus, it would cost between $375M and $500M to elevate by 1 m. No substantial planning has been done to protect the Port of Aarhus in recent years, making it vulnerable to potential inundations and other extreme weather events. While costly to raise the level of large areas, such as those utilized in this port, doing nothing could prove even more costly in the long run. To secure the future of the Danish economy, it is essential that the main sources of its financial stability be protected against climate change; to do that, Figure 2 Estimated cost per square meter to elevate a port Source: Hippe et al., 2015.
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