ABSTRACT
Flooding poses serious threats to coastal cities, including both economic damage and loss of lives (Nicholls, 2004; Nicholls et al, 2008; Dasgupta et al, 2009). More than 50 per cent of the world’s population live in cities, and worldwide more than 40 million people living in coastal cities are exposed to floods with a return period of 100 years (Nicholls et al, 2008). Within the next 30 years, more than two-thirds of the world’s cities will be vulnerable to flooding due to factors including sea-level rise, climate change, subsidence and socio-economic changes (Rosenzweig and Solecki, 2001; Bouwer et al, 2007; IPCC, 2007b).
