Flood myth

Flooding (psychology)

Cartography

Archaeology

Digital elevation model

Physical geography

Geology

Sea level rise

Oceanography

Climate change

Psychology

Mathematics

Sea level

Geography

Psychotherapist

Elevation (ballistics)

Environmental science

Geometry

Remote sensing

Shuttle Radar Topography Mission

Coastal flood

Meteorology

Water level

Nature Communications

Most estimates of global mean sea-level rise this century fall below 2 m. This quantity is comparable to the positive vertical bias of the principle digital elevation model (DEM) used to assess global and national population exposures to extreme coastal water levels, NASA’s SRTM. CoastalDEM is a new DEM utilizing neural networks to reduce SRTM error. Here we show – employing CoastalDEM—that 190 M people (150–250 M, 90% CI) currently occupy global land below projected high tide lines for 2100 under low carbon emissions, up from 110 M today, for a median increase of 80 M. These figures triple SRTM-based values. Under high emissions, CoastalDEM indicates up to 630 M people live on land below projected annual flood levels for 2100, and up to 340 M for mid-century, versus roughly 250 M at present. We estimate one billion people now occupy land less than 10 m above current high tide lines, including 230 M below 1 m.

New elevation data triple estimates of global vulnerability to sea-level rise and coastal flooding