Climate change, sea level rise, and coastal disasters. A review of modeling practices

- We survey the modeling approaches used to assess the climate change impacts and adaptation to sea level rise and coastal extreme events.
- We distinguish between bottom-up, engineering, technical studies and economic assessments.
- The two methodologies were initially separate, but there is a growing tendency to combine risk analyses and economic evaluations.
- Coastal protection appears to be a very cost-effective strategy in various studies using different methodologies.
- The adaptation option of retreating should in the presence of accelerating sea level rise and of the risk of flooding and extreme events.

The climate change impacts on sea level rise and coastal disasters, and the possible adaptation responses have been studied using very different approaches, such as very detailed site-specific engineering studies and global macroeconomic assessments of costal zone vulnerability. This paper reviews the methodologies and the modeling practices used by the sea level rise literature. It points at the strengths and weaknesses of each approach, motivating differences in results and in policy implications. Based on the studies surveyed, this paper also identifies potential directions for future research.