Integrative Cross-Chapter Box on Low-lying Islands and Coasts

Abstract

commitment of ( ). LLIC 11% of the global population, generate about 14% of the global Gross Domestic Product and comprise many world cultural heritage sites. LLIC already experience climate-related ocean and cryosphere changes ( high confidence ), and they share both commonalities in their exposure and vulnerability to climate change (e.g., low elevation, human disturbances to terrestrial and marine ecosystems), and context-specificities (e.g., variable ecosystem climate sensitivities and risk perceptions by populations). Options to adapt to rising seas, e.g., range from hard engineering to ecosystem-based measures, and from securing current settings to relocating people, built assets and activities. Effective combinations of measures vary across geographies (cities and megacities, small islands, deltas and Arctic coasts), and reflect the scale of observed and projected impacts, ecosystems’ and societies’ adaptive capacity, and the existence of transformational governance ( high confidence ) {Sections 3.5.3, 4.4.2 to 4.4.5, 5.5.2, 6.8, 6.9, Cross-Chapter Box 2 in Chapter 1}.