Scientific evidence indicates that global warming could lead to a sea-level rise (SLR) of 1 meter or more in the 21st century. In this research, we have assessed how that would affect coastal wetlands in 76 developing countries and territories, taking into account how much of wetlands would be submerged and how likely the wetlands would move inland as the coastline recedes. Geographic Information System (GIS) software has been used to overlay the best available, spatially-disaggregated global data on freshwater marsh, Global Lakes and Wetlands Database (GLWD) Coastal Wetlands and brackish/saline wetlands, with the inundation zones projected for 1m SLR. In order to assess the impact of SLR on wetlands and the potential for adaptation, the wetland migratory potential (WMP) characteristic in the Dynamic Interactive Vulnerability Assessment (DIVA) database from the DINAS-COAST project has been used (Vafeidis et al, 2008). Our research estimates the vulnerable freshwater marsh, swamp forest, GLWD Coastal Wetlands, and brackish/saline wetlands, areas at risk by country and territory.
