IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v9y2018i1d10.1038_s41467-018-06645-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Mediterranean UNESCO World Heritage at risk from coastal flooding and erosion due to sea-level rise

Author

Listed:
  • Lena Reimann

    (Kiel University)

  • Athanasios T. Vafeidis

    (Kiel University)

  • Sally Brown

    (University of Southampton
    Faculty of Science and Technology, Bournemouth University)

  • Jochen Hinkel

    (Global Climate Forum e.V. (GCF))

  • Richard S. J. Tol

    (University of Sussex)

Abstract

UNESCO World Heritage sites (WHS) located in coastal areas are increasingly at risk from coastal hazards due to sea-level rise. In this study, we assess Mediterranean cultural WHS at risk from coastal flooding and erosion under four sea-level rise scenarios until 2100. Based on the analysis of spatially explicit WHS data, we develop an index-based approach that allows for ranking WHS at risk from both coastal hazards. Here we show that of 49 cultural WHS located in low-lying coastal areas of the Mediterranean, 37 are at risk from a 100-year flood and 42 from coastal erosion, already today. Until 2100, flood risk may increase by 50% and erosion risk by 13% across the region, with considerably higher increases at individual WHS. Our results provide a first-order assessment of where adaptation is most urgently needed and can support policymakers in steering local-scale research to devise suitable adaptation strategies for each WHS.

Suggested Citation

  • Lena Reimann & Athanasios T. Vafeidis & Sally Brown & Jochen Hinkel & Richard S. J. Tol, 2018. "Mediterranean UNESCO World Heritage at risk from coastal flooding and erosion due to sea-level rise," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 9(1), pages 1-11, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-06645-9
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-06645-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-06645-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-018-06645-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Óscar Ferreira & Sunna Kupfer & Susana Costas, 2021. "Implications of sea-level rise for overwash enhancement at South Portugal," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 109(3), pages 2221-2239, December.
    2. Dario Camuffo, 2021. "Four centuries of documentary sources concerning the sea level rise in Venice," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 167(3), pages 1-16, August.
    3. Donatella Porrini & Francesco Masi, 2021. "Managing climate change risk: the case of the Italian Churches," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 105(3), pages 2619-2637, February.
    4. Shirvani Dastgerdi, Ahmadreza & Sargolini, Massimo & Broussard Allred, Shorna & Chatrchyan, Allison Morrill & Drescher, Michael & DeGeer, Christopher, 2022. "Climate change risk reduction in cultural landscapes: Insights from Cinque Terre and Waterloo," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    5. da Mosto, Jane & Bertolini, Camilla & Markandya, Anil & Nunes, Paulo A.L.D. & Spencer, Tom & Palaima, Arnas & Onofri, Laura, 2020. "Rethinking Venice from an Ecosystem Services Perspective," FACTS: Firms And Cities Towards Sustainability 308019, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) > FACTS: Firms And Cities Towards Sustainability.
    6. Silvio Cristiano & Francesco Gonella, 2020. "‘Kill Venice’: a systems thinking conceptualisation of urban life, economy, and resilience in tourist cities," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 7(1), pages 1-13, December.
    7. Chiara D’Alpaos & Andrea D’Alpaos, 2021. "The Valuation of Ecosystem Services in the Venice Lagoon: A Multicriteria Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-15, August.
    8. Andrea Valagussa & Paolo Frattini & Giovanni Crosta & Daniele Spizzichino & Gabriele Leoni & Claudio Margottini, 2021. "Multi-risk analysis on European cultural and natural UNESCO heritage sites," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 105(3), pages 2659-2676, February.
    9. Erin Seekamp & Eugene Jo, 2020. "Resilience and transformation of heritage sites to accommodate for loss and learning in a changing climate," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 162(1), pages 41-55, September.
    10. Francesca Di Turo & Laura Medeghini, 2021. "How Green Possibilities Can Help in a Future Sustainable Conservation of Cultural Heritage in Europe," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-14, March.
    11. Lena Reimann & Bryan Jones & Nora Bieker & Claudia Wolff & Jeroen C.J.H. Aerts & Athanasios T. Vafeidis, 2023. "Exploring spatial feedbacks between adaptation policies and internal migration patterns due to sea-level rise," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-14, December.
    12. Daniele Giordan & Martina Cignetti & Danilo Godone & Silvia Peruccacci & Emanuele Raso & Giacomo Pepe & Domenico Calcaterra & Andrea Cevasco & Marco Firpo & Patrizio Scarpellini & Marta Gnone, 2020. "A New Procedure for an Effective Management of Geo-Hydrological Risks across the “Sentiero Verde-Azzurro” Trail, Cinque Terre National Park, Liguria (North-Western Italy)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-20, January.
    13. Meghan C. L. Howey, 2020. "Harnessing Remote Sensing Derived Sea Level Rise Models to Assess Cultural Heritage Vulnerability: A Case Study from the Northwest Atlantic Ocean," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-18, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-06645-9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.