Vulnerability assessment of African coasts to sea level rise using GIS and remote sensing

Sherein El-Shahat (), Abbas Mohamed El-Zafarany (), Tarek Abou El Seoud () and Safaa A. Ghoniem ()
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Sherein El-Shahat: Nile Higher Institute for Engineering and Technology
Abbas Mohamed El-Zafarany: Cairo University
Tarek Abou El Seoud: Cairo University
Safaa A. Ghoniem: Cairo University

Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, 2021, vol. 23, issue 2, No 78, 2827-2845

Abstract: Abstract Climate change and its association with sea level rise ‘SLR’ have become a true fact that increasingly challenge coastal zones all over the world. This study attempts to fill the lack of studies and assessments of the African coasts through developing a SLR vulnerability assessment. The study has customized coastal vulnerability index ‘CVI’ to include seventeen parameters grouping in the vulnerability’s pillars: exposure, sensitivity, and resilience. The selected variables represent the main coastal characteristics physically and socioeconomically. The study applies CVI method for the African coastal zone using GIS and remote sensing. However, the study has followed the case study approach on the continental level of Africa, and the results have classified coastal areas into different degrees of vulnerabilities. Application of CEI equation showed that about 40% of African coast are ranging from moderate to very high exposure, as for the CSI equation showed that 75% of African coast are ranging from moderate to very high sensitivity, as for the CRI equation showed that 55% of African coast are ranging from moderate to very high resilience, and as for the CVI equation showed that 35% of the 26,000 km length of Africa’s coasts are vulnerable to SLR. It has been approved that deltas are the most vulnerable areas along the African coasts. Also, values of CVI pillars for each of these deltas showed great variation, which accordingly could give an indicator for adaptation and mitigation strategies of Africa’s coasts at regional and national levels, which could be one strategy or more: protection, accommodation, and retreat strategies.

Keywords: Sea level rise (SLR); Coastal vulnerability index (CVI); African coasts; Vulnerability pillars; African river deltas (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1007/s10668-020-00639-8

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