Managed River Realignment as a Nature Based Solution

Abstract

The Philippines is currently trying to implement viable flood control infrastructure projects to protect its citizens that reside in urbanized areas of estuaries. Recent directives from developmental agencies call for approaches to serve this function without compromising ecosystem services. This study explores the possible methods of managed river realignment as a Nature Based Solution to storm surge events and how this might perform in the face of climate change driven sea level rise. The data gathered for this study was obtained from multiple sources including remote sensing techniques for 5 separate rivers within the Philippines. Using a morphology estimator tool combined with a 1D-hydrodynamic model it was found that widening the mouth of an estuary has the capabilities of effectively dampening inland tidal amplitude associated with storm surge disturbance events. From the analysis of the results it shows a promising river management solution to flood mitigation associated with storm surge events for urbanized areas residing within estuaries.