Coastal Cities and Regions in a Changing Climate: Economic Impacts, Risks and Vulnerabilities

Abstract

This review examines recent literature on economic impacts, vulnerabilities and adaptation to climate change in coastal cities and regions of the developed world. Major areas of focus within this body of literature include study of the economic impacts of extreme events, examination of the economic consequences of sea level rise, and investigation of the multiple factors that influence economic vulnerability and resilience. Despite blossoming interest in the local and regional economic dimensions of climate change, the majority of work on this topic is focused on coastal cities and regions in the Global North. This work is also largely conducted outside the field of economic geography in disciplines that include natural hazards, economics, planning, and human dimensions of global environmental change, among others. While these studies have made important contributions to knowledge about how climate change may affect developed coastal cities and regions, there is substantial room for new engagement by economic geographers. In addition to a clear need for more work on the Global South, areas where economic geographers seem especially well-positioned to contribute include comprehensive assessments of coastal economic impacts which incorporate both market and non-market measures, investigation of the effects of climate change on patterns of growth and spatial inequality across coastal and related inland areas, and development of new theoretical understandings of how changing environmental baselines may influence regional economic growth and decline.