Methods for assessing current and future coastal vulnerability to climate change - ETC/ACC Technical Paper 2010/8

This background paper identifies key aspects of methods, data and models for assessing current and future coastal vulnerability to climate change. The European Environment Agency (EEA), with the support of the former European Topic Centre (ETC) on Air and Climate Change and the ETC on Land use and Spatial Information, has published various reports on climate change impacts and vulnerability in Europe. This background paper was developed as input for an expert meeting that took place in Copenhagen on 27-28 October 2010. The objectives of the expert meeting were to assess coastal vulnerability mapping from the perspective of methodological options, observational evidence and future projections. The paper was afterwards improved by including comments made at the meeting and also the conclusions from the meeting. The paper was also one of the background input for the elaboration of a successive technical paper “Methods for assessing coastal vulnerability to climate change”. This latter was drafted in 2011 by the European Topic Centre on Climate Change Impacts, Vulnerability and Adaptation (ETC-CCA), that at beginning of 2011 took some of the competences of the former ETC-ACC. Reference to the ETC-CCA technical paper is included in the Climate Adapt database, too.