The Climate Impacts: Global and Regional Adaptation Support Platform

The following impact chains for tropical coastal areas are available:

• Ocean acidification
• Ocean warming and sea-surface temperature increases
• Increased rainfall and flooding
• Decreased rainfall and drought
• Sea-level rise
• Tropical storms

Texts and impact chains in this section by

Tropical coasts are highly vulnerable to climatic pressures, the future impacts of which are projected to propagate through the natural and human components of coastal systems. One single event (e.g., intense storm) or gradual changes (e.g., upland deforestation or sea-level rise) can have multiple direct and indirect impacts in coral reefs, seagrass meadows, mangroves and human settlements and can compromise the resilience of the whole system.

Risks related to climate change are frequently examined in isolation through the assessment of a single economic sector or ecosystem. However, this approach may lead to the indirect impacts, mal-adaptation risks and feedback loops being overlooked. Alternatively, impact chain maps offer a way of illustrating the potential impacts of climate change in a holistic and systemic way. An impact chain represents how a pressure propagates through a system via direct and indirect impacts.

This section provides interactive access to climate change impact chains in tropical coastal areas based on a literature review of 289 papers.

CIFOR's study on climate change impact chains in coastal areas, funded by the Federal Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU), was presented in two webinars on AdaptationCommunity.net. The final report is now available for download on the platform. Abstracts and methods are provided in an extensive annex. The study is accompanied by two short policy briefs: one about the potential of ecosystem-based adaptation strategies in Indonesia and the Philippines, and another one giving a quick overview of the impact chains.