Environmental resource management

Geology

Climate change

Meteorology

Archaeology

Sea level rise

Natural hazard

Psychotherapist

Erosion

Oceanography

Coastal flood

Paleontology

Coastal erosion

Psychology

Geography

Flooding (psychology)

Mediterranean sea

Flood myth

Environmental science

Coastal hazards

Mediterranean climate

Nature Communications

UNESCO World Heritage sites (WHS) located in coastal areas are increasingly at risk from coastal hazards due to sea-level rise. In this study, we assess Mediterranean cultural WHS at risk from coastal flooding and erosion under four sea-level rise scenarios until 2100. Based on the analysis of spatially explicit WHS data, we develop an index-based approach that allows for ranking WHS at risk from both coastal hazards. Here we show that of 49 cultural WHS located in low-lying coastal areas of the Mediterranean, 37 are at risk from a 100-year flood and 42 from coastal erosion, already today. Until 2100, flood risk may increase by 50% and erosion risk by 13% across the region, with considerably higher increases at individual WHS. Our results provide a first-order assessment of where adaptation is most urgently needed and can support policymakers in steering local-scale research to devise suitable adaptation strategies for each WHS.

Mediterranean UNESCO World Heritage at risk from coastal flooding and erosion due to sea-level rise