Results suggest that wetlands do have the potential to reduce surges but the magnitude of attenuation is dependent on the surrounding coastal landscape and the strength and duration of the storm forcing.
DiDi Research, the "brains of Didi Chuxing," is a machine learning research institute set up by the company to predict demand, reduce surge impact and also develop self-driving car technology.
Numerical models have shown that mangroves are better at reducing surge heights during faster moving storms (~40 km/hr).
Observations of coastal water levels during Hurricanes Katrina (2005) and Wilma (2005) show that intact mangrove wetlands reduced surge heights by up to 9.4 cm/km inland23.
The perforated baffies reduce liquid surging most effectively compared with all other types of baffie tested here.
"There's a lot of people saying that wetlands can reduce storm surges," said Rusty Feagin, an ecologist at Texas A&M University.
By cementing themselves into complex shell reefs, they provide habitat for hundreds of invertebrate and fish species and reduce storm surges and erosion.
The potential of wetlands to reduce storm surge has typically been expressed as a constant attenuation rate, but the relationship is much more complex.
Flood fighters planned to use the huge Gezhouba Dam downstream and two giant reservoirs on Yangtze tributaries to try to reduce the surge, Li Sijun, an official with the Hubei Flood Control Headquarters, was quoted as saying.
