How climate change is affecting sea levels

Sea level rise increases the frequency and severity of storm surges and coastal flooding, causing serious damage to critical infrastructure and leading to the displacement of coastal communities around the world. Globally, more than 600 million people live in low‐lying coastal areas at less than 10m elevation, and the population of these regions is expected to exceed 1 billion by 2050 (Neumann et al., 2015). In the United Kingdom, current annual damages from coastal flooding are estimated at over £500 million per year (Edwards, 2017), and costs of damage are likely to increase under projections of future sea level rise.

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