Methods for assessing coastal vulnerability to climate change - ETC CCA Technical Paper 1/2011

The Technical Paper “Methods for assessing coastal vulnerability to climate change” was drafted by the European Topic Centre on Climate Change Impacts, Vulnerability and Adaptation (ETC-CCA) in 2011. This paper is intended to support EEA in the identification and selection of methods for mapping and analysing vulnerability and risks of coastal systems to climate change at the scale of Europe and Regional Seas. In this perspective the paper evaluates the most relevant index and indicator based-methods, GIS-based support systems, methods based on dynamic computer modelling and visualisation tools, that have been applied to assess coastal vulnerability to climate change and sea level rise. The paper also deals with related data availability and data needs issues at the European and Regional Sea level. Based on the performed analysis and the results of an EEA expert workshop on “Methods for assessing coastal vulnerability to climate change at the European scale” organised by EEA and ETC-CCA in Copenhagen in June 2011, the paper provides some conclusions on the operative application of the main available methods for the assessment of coastal vulnerability to climate change at the scale of Europe and Regional Seas.