Impact and response of storm Babet from a Swedish perspective

In October 2023, storm Babet impacted the southern Baltic Sea and caused widespread coastal flooding and erosion in Germany, Denmark and Sweden. The event represented a rare occurrence of large waves in combination with high sea levels which in Sweden led to significant erosion in the southern county of Scania. In this study, we use high-resolution LiDAR data from Feb 2019 and Dec 2023 along with transect measurements spanning 2021-2023 to calculate the morphological changes during this period and assess how much of the change we believe to be caused by Babet. We divide the affected coast into ten sections of similar morphological characteristics, identifying the main drivers behind the observed changes; the coast’s geological properties, its underlying morphological change trends or its orientation relative to wave approach during Babet. In total, approximately 1.3 million m³ of sediment eroded between 2019 and 2023, a significant part of this during Babet. Damaged coastal assets include e.g. houses, harbours, roads, jetties and revetments, affecting asset owners from both state, municipal and private level.

Municipalities in Sweden have considerable influence over how crisis management is organized and executed. Municipalities were differently organized before and during Babet, but mostly managed to deal with the event well. The larger organisational challenges laid in the aftermath due to increased workloads and new types of tasks.

Babet led to significant changes of the coastal landscape and the highest number of erosion related damages in the region for many decades. Still, in a larger context the number of damaged assets was fairly low and the types of assets largely of simpler character. In this sense Babet offers a unique window of opportunity for learning and building coastal awareness, capacity and resilience in Sweden, without suffering the full effects of true extremes like the 1872 November storm.