Mangrove forests are increasingly recognised as a viable ‘natured-based solution’ for long-term flood risk reduction and shoreline stabilisation of low-lying coasts (Temmerman et al., 2023). Next to their functioning as storm buffers, mangrove forests also provide a range of other ecosystem services to society (e.g., carbon sequestration, maintenance of biodiversity). In addition, the implementation and maintenance costs of mangroves could be substantially lower in comparison to building hard -engineering infrastructure. However, successful implementation of mangroves in coastal flood-risk reduction strategies does require a well-defined capacity to reduce flood risk (functionality) along with a predictable behaviour over time (persistence) (Gijsman et al., 2021). At present, it remains challenging to implement mangroves in coastal flood-risk reduction projects, largely because the dynamic response of mangrove systems to changing environmental conditions is not yet sufficiently understood to design flood-risk reduction projects with a reasonable level of certainty.
