Sea level rise

• The world's largest river deltas (e.g. Brahmaputra - Ganges, Nile, Mississippi)
• The areas that lie close to sea level and are already defended (e.g. the Netherlands, parts of eastern England)
• small, low-lying islands (usually coral atolls) in the Pacific and Indian Oceans

Physical factors

• could lose up to 20% of its land
• damage to agricultural lang
• multiple hazard zone (river floods, coastal floods, storm surges, typhoons)

Human factors

• would displace up to 40 million peoeple
• 65% of the rapidly growing population are subsistence farmers

Capacity to cope

• solutions are complex as the coast is too long to defend

Physical factors

• 50% of coastal lowlands are polders (reclaimed land) - 50% below present sea level

Human factors

• densely populated, heavily developed area

Capacity to cope

• defended by a complex system of dykes and coastal sand dunes 
• estimated that a 1m sea level rise would cost the Netherlands $12,000 million to defend (2005) 

Physical factors

• small physical size - nowhere to go
• low elevation (coral atolls)
• prone to natural disasters
• vulnerability of groundwater to contamination by sea
• wide geographic distibution and remoteness

Human factors

• dense and growing populations
• rapid urbanisation

Capacity to cope

• cost of protection is far beyond them - among the least developed countries.
• remote - long way from aid & expensive to escape