ABSTRACT
The coastal zones of the world have been identified as those areas most vulnerable to climate change and, particularly, sea-level rise (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 1996). Included are scores of low-lying islands and atolls, many no more than a few metres above sea level. Even for mountainous islands, the inhabitable land tends to lie on the coastal fringe and so, too, is at risk from sea-level rise. Coastal wetlands, major river deltas, sandy beach and dune systems, mangroves and coral reef systems are also potentially threatened (Bijlsma, 1996; Nurse et al, 1998). Internationally, the enhanced vulnerability of coastal zones to climate change and sea-level rise, especially in relation to the needs of small-island developing states, has been explicitly recognised by the Climate Convention (Article 4.8; United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, 1992) and Agenda 21 (1992).
