Integration of Drainage and Flood Protection Standards With Land Subsidence Trends for Sustainable Development and Management of Coastal and Deltaic Areas—An Overview

ABSTRACT The reclamation, development and management of coastal and deltaic areas requires an integrated approach in which the various relevant aspects would have to be taken into account. Two of the important aspects in this approach are the design standards for drainage and flood protection provisions and land subsidence. With respect to the flood protection provisions, it is important that in quite a few of the reclaimed coastal and deltaic areas there is rapid urbanisation going on. There may be different reasons for the land subsidence, such as compaction of soft layers, oxidation of peat soils or tectonic movement. In extreme cases, the land subsidence may be even more than 200 mm per year. The combination of these two aspects requires due attention to prevent, or at least reduce as much as possible, calamities in these sensitive flood‐prone areas. In this paper, an overview is presented of the relevant values, processes and approaches of these two aspects that generally play an important role in the integrated approach. Attention is given to how they may impact the conditions in reclaimed coastal and deltaic areas and what measures could be considered to take them into account in sustainable integrated development and management.