Wetlands; Climate Change and Environment; Geographical
Information Systems; Population Policies; Country Strategy &
Performance 1 of 1 Summary: Sea level rise (SLR) due to climate
change is a serious global threat. The scientific evidence is
now overwhelming. Continued growth of greenhouse gas emissions
and associated global warming could well promote SLR of 1m-3m in
this century, and unexpectedly rapid breakup of the Greenland
and West Antarctic ice sheets might produce a 5m SLR. In this
paper, the authors have assessed the consequences of continued
SLR for 84 developing countries. Geographic Information System
(GIS) software has been used to overlay the best available,
spatially-disaggregated global data on critical impact elements
(land, population, agriculture, urban extent, wetlands, and GDP)
with the inundation zones projected for 1-5m SLR. The results
reveal that hundreds of millions of people in the developing
world are likely to be displaced by SLR within this century, and
accompanying economic and e