Impacts on Coastal Infrastructures SIDS 2007

Background:

Today more than before, the impacts of climatic changes are almost a certainty considering the latest estimates published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2007). Indeed, those impacts, which can be measured with high level of confidence, can already be observed through varied geo-morphologic and hydro-climatic changes affecting the planet’s structure : increasing sea level rise, melting of the artic glaciers due to global warming, and significant changes in the patters, intensity and frequency in return periods of extreme weather systems, such as El Niño, La Nina, cyclones (hurricanes and typhoons), storm surges.