Adaptation pathways for vulnerable coastal zones

Global sea levels have risen almost twenty centimetres over the past century and they will continue to rise even if the Paris Agreement is fully implemented. Only a limited number of the coastal zones at risk (examples being the Thames Estuary, UK and the Rhine delta, Netherlands) are planning ahead and devising measures to respond to possible sea-level-rise scenarios. Measures of this kind are known as adaptation pathways. Since sea-level rise could have severe effects, adaptation is essential and may require extensive transformative action.