Global Investment Costs for Coastal Defense through the 21st Century

Sea-level rise threatens low-lying areas around the world's coasts with increased coastal flooding during storms. One response to this challenge is to build or upgrade coastal flood defenses. This report examines the potential investment costs...

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Main Authors: Nicholls, Robert J., Hinkel, Jochen, Lincke, Daniel, van der Pol, Thomas
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/433981550240622188/Global-Investment-Costs-for-Coastal-Defense-through-the-21st-Century
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31308
id okr-10986-31308
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-313082022-09-20T00:14:44Z Global Investment Costs for Coastal Defense through the 21st Century Nicholls, Robert J. Hinkel, Jochen Lincke, Daniel van der Pol, Thomas SEA-LEVEL RISE COASTAL FLOODING ADAPTATION CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION RISING SEA LEVELS COASTAL INFRASTRUCTURE PROTECTION BARRIER FLOOD RISK Sea-level rise threatens low-lying areas around the world's coasts with increased coastal flooding during storms. One response to this challenge is to build or upgrade coastal flood defenses. This report examines the potential investment costs of such an adaptation strategy applied globally over the 21st century for sea-level rise scenarios consistent with three Representative Concentration Pathways and 3 Shared Socioeconomic Pathways. For all the protection models considered, much less than half of the world's coast is protected. The total defense costs are significantly higher than earlier estimates, amounting to as much as US$18.3 trillion. With cost-benefit analysis, there are large uncertainties and empirical observations of protection standards are limited. Hence, the estimates should be considered as indicative, and this remains an important topic for future research. Further, building defenses is not a one-off capital investment. Over the 21st century, the cost of a comprehensive protection strategy is dominated by maintenance costs in all the cases considered in this report. This indicates that in addition to capital investment, the development of appropriate institutions and governance mechanisms to deliver maintenance, as well as the necessary funding streams, are essential for such a protection-based adaptation strategy to be effective. 2019-02-21T15:36:24Z 2019-02-21T15:36:24Z 2019-02 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/433981550240622188/Global-Investment-Costs-for-Coastal-Defense-through-the-21st-Century http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31308 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8745 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic SEA-LEVEL RISE
COASTAL FLOODING
ADAPTATION
CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION
RISING SEA LEVELS
COASTAL INFRASTRUCTURE
PROTECTION BARRIER
FLOOD RISK
spellingShingle SEA-LEVEL RISE
COASTAL FLOODING
ADAPTATION
CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION
RISING SEA LEVELS
COASTAL INFRASTRUCTURE
PROTECTION BARRIER
FLOOD RISK
Nicholls, Robert J.
Hinkel, Jochen
Lincke, Daniel
van der Pol, Thomas
Global Investment Costs for Coastal Defense through the 21st Century
relation Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8745
description Sea-level rise threatens low-lying areas around the world's coasts with increased coastal flooding during storms. One response to this challenge is to build or upgrade coastal flood defenses. This report examines the potential investment costs of such an adaptation strategy applied globally over the 21st century for sea-level rise scenarios consistent with three Representative Concentration Pathways and 3 Shared Socioeconomic Pathways. For all the protection models considered, much less than half of the world's coast is protected. The total defense costs are significantly higher than earlier estimates, amounting to as much as US$18.3 trillion. With cost-benefit analysis, there are large uncertainties and empirical observations of protection standards are limited. Hence, the estimates should be considered as indicative, and this remains an important topic for future research. Further, building defenses is not a one-off capital investment. Over the 21st century, the cost of a comprehensive protection strategy is dominated by maintenance costs in all the cases considered in this report. This indicates that in addition to capital investment, the development of appropriate institutions and governance mechanisms to deliver maintenance, as well as the necessary funding streams, are essential for such a protection-based adaptation strategy to be effective.
format Working Paper
author Nicholls, Robert J.
Hinkel, Jochen
Lincke, Daniel
van der Pol, Thomas
author_facet Nicholls, Robert J.
Hinkel, Jochen
Lincke, Daniel
van der Pol, Thomas
author_sort Nicholls, Robert J.
title Global Investment Costs for Coastal Defense through the 21st Century
title_short Global Investment Costs for Coastal Defense through the 21st Century
title_full Global Investment Costs for Coastal Defense through the 21st Century
title_fullStr Global Investment Costs for Coastal Defense through the 21st Century
title_full_unstemmed Global Investment Costs for Coastal Defense through the 21st Century
title_sort global investment costs for coastal defense through the 21st century
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2019
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/433981550240622188/Global-Investment-Costs-for-Coastal-Defense-through-the-21st-Century
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31308
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