Climate change impacts on coastal urban areas

Anticipated climate changes will greatly amplify risks to coastal populations. By the end of the century, increases in the rates of global and local sea-level rise could lead to inundation of low-lying coastal regions, including wetlands, more frequent flooding due to storm surges, and worsening beach erosion. Saltwater could penetrate further up rivers and estuaries and infiltrate coastal aquifers, thereby contaminating urban water supplies. In the metropolitan New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey region, as elsewhere, the coastal zone is squeezed between the hazards of flooding, beach erosion, and sea-level rise on the one hand, and development pressures on the other. Ongoing sea-level rise and land subsidence have historically contributed to narrowing of barrier islands and storm-related damages. These processes will continue and worsen as climate change progresses, necessitating coastal zone planning processes that take projected changes in sea level into account.