Sea Level Rise and Implications for Low-Lying Islands, Coasts and Communities

This chapter assesses past and future contributions to global, regional and extreme sea level changes, associated risk to low-lying islands, coasts, cities, and settlements, and response options and pathways to resilience and sustainable development along the coast. ObservationsGlobal mean sea level (GMSL) is rising (virtually certain 1 ) and accelerating (high confidence 2 ).The sum of glacier and ice sheet contributions is now the dominant source of GMSL rise (very high confidence).GMSL from tide gauges and altimetry observations increased from 1.4 mm yr -1 over the period 1901-1990 to 2.1 mm yr -1 over the period 1970-2015 to 3.2 mm yr -1 over the period 1993-2015 to 3.6 mm yr -1 over the period 2006-2015…