Sea-level rise is increasing the risk of flooding in coastal deltas, a recent study has shown. Global datasets help estimating how and where delta flood risk will be higher.
Deltas are prone-flooding areas where over 340m people have established their home, now future sea-level rise associated with climate change is representing a greater risk for them. The threat to all coastal communities around the world has increased in the deltas due to their exceptional geological characteristics.
A suite of global datasets has allowed a group of researchers to estimate how and where sea-level rise and land subsidence, a combination called relative sea-level rise (RSLR), will intensify delta flood risk. The highest risk increases are found in the Krishna (India), Ganges-Brahmaputra (Bangladesh), and Brahmani (India) deltas.
However, the study also includes deltas of low risk such as Mississippi (US) and Rhine (Netherlands) ones, where the efforts to implement conventional protective infrastructure may not be sufficient to face this defy.
