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Concept
Coastal hazards
Summary
Coastal hazards are physical phenomena that expose a coastal area to the risk of property damage, loss of life, and environmental degradation. Rapid-onset hazards last a few minutes to several days and encompass significant cyclones accompanied by high-speed winds, waves, and surges or tsunamis created by submarine (undersea) earthquakes and landslides. Slow-onset hazards, such as erosion and gradual inundation, develop incrementally over extended periods.
Since early civilization, coastal areas have been attractive settling grounds for humans as they provide abundant marine resources, fertile agricultural land, and possibilities for trade and transport. This has led to high population densities and high levels of development in many coastal areas, with this trend continuing into the 21st century. About 1.2 billion people live in coastal areas globally, predicted to increase to 1.8–5.2 billion by the 2080s due to population growth and coastal migration. Along with this increase follows significant investments in infrastructure and the built environment.
However, the characteristics of coastal environments pose significant challenges to human habitation. Coastlines are highly dynamic natural systems that interact with terrestrial, marine, and atmospheric processes and continuously change in response to these processes. Over the years, human society has often failed to recognize the hazards related to these dynamics. Furthermore, this has led to major disasters and societal disruption. Even today, coastal development often takes place with little regard to the hazards present in these environments, although climate change is likely to increase the general hazard levels. Societal activities in coastal areas can also pose a hazard to the natural balance of coastal systems, and disrupt the human livelihoods that depend on them.
Coastal hazard management has become an increasingly important aspect of coastal planning to improve society's resilience to coastal hazards.
Official source
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