SPP-1889 SeaLevel and Climate Migrants in Coastal Regions
The DICES project is in the last phase of preparations for its field surveys in the Maldives during the first weeks of March 2017. Among the study regions of the SPP-1889 program, the two focus areas of the DICES project, the Maldives and Bougainville (Papua New Guinea), also represent examples of the ESRI-developed contribution on the anticipated future climate migrants in worldwide coastal regions, further highlighting the significance of the main objectives of the SPP-1889 SeaLevel program.
Global warming and the rising sea level already force coastal populations worldwide to be displaced from homes and relocated further away from the coast. Climate migration represents an increasing threat to vulnerable coastal communities, particularly on the Small Islands Development States (SIDS) and low-lying coastal regions.
The SPP-1889 SeaLevel program aims in deducing the drivers and regional impacts of sea level rise in the Southeast Asia region, and in parallel, calls for the development of (new) coping strategies and mitigation mechanisms (best practices) of the coastal societies in the region. Thus, the outcomes of the SPP SeaLevel research will be of great benefit to such efforts both in Southeast Asia as well as to other regions worldwide, where coastal populations are already forced to relocate themselves or are expected to face climate migration in the future due to sea level rise.