Adapting to climate change in coastal areas

The rising sea level due to global warming is exacerbating the risks of coastal flooding, salt-water intrusion into coastal aquifers and coastal erosion. Various responses to such risks already exist, such as protecting built-up areas by reinforcing dunes or coastal defences, avoiding urbanisation in areas at risk, or relocating buildings, etc.

The 6^th IPCC report demonstrated that the effectiveness of these responses will depend on the speed at which the sea level rises, and therefore on the level of global warming and how the Antarctic reacts to this warming. It also highlighted the risk that adaptation measures that focus solely on the issue of coastal protection could result in the loss of coastal biodiversity through the destruction of habitats.

Drawing on tangible examples, this presentation explains that the approach required to adapt to sea-level rise also offers short and medium-term opportunities to improve the management of coastal areas and move towards sustainability.

About Gonéri Le Cozannet 

Gonéri Le Cozannet has been a researcher in the Coastal Risks and Climate Change Unit at BRGM since 2006. He studies the consequences of rising sea level in relation to coastal risks (erosion and coastal flooding). He is the coordinator of the European CoCliCo project, which aims to set up a European climate service for coastal adaptation. Gonéri Le Cozannet also co-authored the 2^nd section of the 6^th IPCC report on climate change impacts and adaptation strategies, which was published in 2022.