87 MARTINDALE CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF PRIVATE ENTERPRISE are coastal and do not have the same resources or long-term plans as Copenhagen in terms of flood mitigation. They cannot afford to invest billions of dollars in water level mitigation and protection and therefore must take advantage of other alternatives that can be implemented on a small scale and are less costly. One of the options smaller cities often choose to take advantage of is dikes, structural barriers that act like small dams and contain water on one side of the structure. Three climate researchers from the University of Potsdam conducted a study on Kalundborg, a medium-sized Danish coastal city with about 16,000 citizens (Boettle et al., 2013). In this study, they compared the damage the city would incur with and without dike protection. Figure 1 summarizes the estimated costs at various SLRs with and without dikes. Dike installation as a mitigation system for flooding in larger cities has been common, and this study concludes that it is especially beneficial in smaller-scale cities. The study assumes that the current water protection level in Kalundborg is around 135 cm above the mean sea level. As Figure 1 shows, dike protection would keep damage costs near zero up to SLRs of 275 cm above the current water level. Without this protection, costs could be as high as 250Mkr ($35M). But dikes would not add much cost to risk mitigation. Events where flooding would be 300 cm (10 ft) would be almost equally detrimental with or without flood protection. At this level, dikes would be overtopped and protection would fail (Boettle et al., 2013). Clearly, dike protection makes sense for smaller Danish cities. Maritime operations Denmark has a small open economy and is very dependent on foreign trade. Annually, Denmark exports goods and services valued at more than 1Tkr ($142B). The Danes have a trade surplus; maritime transport, pharmaceuticals, and machinery are among the major commodities and service exports (Statistics Denmark, 2022). Most of this trade takes place in ports, as Denmark is the world’s fifth largest maritime shipping nation (American-Danish Business Council, 2022). With a large percentage of the GDP coming from sea trade, it is crucial for Denmark to avoid interruptions of its maritime operations. At the same time, these operations are vulnerable to SLRs and storm surges, which could cause severe economic losses. Economic losses arising from both direct damage to infrastructure and operational disruptions and delays across interconnected global supply chains can add up to large sums. The global supply chain has been undergoing extensive difficulties since COVID-19 and is set to face many more challenges from climate change. Enhancing and building more climate-resilient seaports is one of the main points in the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable DeFigure 1 Estimated damages with and without proposed dike protection, Kalundborg Source: Boettle et al., 2013.
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