van Wesenbeeck Bregje K, van Zelst Vincent T M, Antolinez Jose A A, de Boer Wiebe P
Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft, The Netherlands.
Deltares, Delft, The Netherlands.
Commun Earth Environ. 2025;6(1):258. doi: 10.1038/s43247-025-02178-4. Epub 2025 Apr 3.
The capacity of mangroves to reduce coastal flood risk resulted in legislation for mandatory widths of mangrove greenbelts in several countries with mangrove presence. Prescribed forest widths vary between 50 and 200 m. Here, we performed 216,000 numerical model runs informed by realistic conditions to quantify confidence in wave reduction capacity of mangroves for wind and swell waves. This analysis highlights that tidal flat areas fronting mangrove forests already account for 70% of reduction in wave heights. Within mangrove forests that are below 500 m wide, wave dissipation is strongly dependent on local water levels, wave characteristics and forest density. For forest widths of over 500 m, which constitute 46% of global coastal mangroves, around 75% or more of the incoming wave energy is dissipated. Hence, for relying on mangroves to dampen shorter waves, a new standard should be adopted that strives for mangrove widths of 500 m or more.
红树林降低沿海洪水风险的能力促使一些有红树林分布的国家制定了关于红树林绿化带强制宽度的法规。规定的森林宽度在50米至200米之间。在此，我们根据实际情况进行了216,000次数值模型运行，以量化对红树林削减风浪和涌浪能力的置信度。该分析突出表明，红树林前缘的潮滩区域已经占波高降低量的70%。在宽度小于500米的红树林内，波浪消散强烈依赖于当地水位、波浪特征和森林密度。对于占全球沿海红树林46%的宽度超过500米的森林，大约75%或更多的入射波能量被消散。因此，为了依靠红树林来减弱较短的波浪，应采用一项新的标准，争取红树林宽度达到500米或更宽。
