Ranking of the world's cities to coastal flooding

This report is part of an OECD project on Cities and Climate Change. A priority of the project was to explore the city-scale risks of climate change and the benefits of both (local) adaptation policies and, to the extent possible, (global) mitigation strategies. The current study was one of the first products to emerge from the project, focusing initially on global port cities to examine the exposure to coastal flooding, today and in the 2070s. The goal was to pinpoint which cities are most reliant on adequate flood defences, and thus where relevant adaptation is most crucial. The study analysed the exposure of people and property and infrastructure to a 1-in-100 year flood event in over 130 key port cities worldwide. A 1-in-100 year flood event is a commonly accepted risk assessment standard. The study aimed to help policy makers determine where to focus adaptation strategies to climate extremes and to understand the potential benefits of mitigation policy.