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Sea defence structures are valuable assets hence requiring viable and diligent asset management and maintenance strategies in order to ensure their integrity and functionality. It has been well documented that rising sea levels due to climate change together with the aggressive environment to which coastal defence structures are subjected can lead to serious defects compromising the integrity of the structures. This paper presents a method for quantitatively assessing the risk of wave overtopping of sea defences, analysing the probability of failure of the structures under future hydraulic and structural conditions and providing cost-effective maintenance planning during the service life. Typical failure mechanisms in an earth sea defence are considered for reliability analyses, namely erosion of dyke crest and landside slope by wave overtopping, piping in the underlain water-conductive layer and uplifting of …