Comparative merits of adaptation policies of sea level rise and their potential impacts on coastal settlements in developing countries

Climate change and global warming has been one of the most discussed and debated topics in Scientific Journals over the last two decades. There are considerable media and public pressures on governments, policy makers and international organisations such as European Union and United Nations to take measures to address global warming and its potential deleterious effects.
The biggest danger, many experts warn, is that global warming will cause sea levels to rise increasingly rapidly. The Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Third Assessment Report, published in 2001, projected that the global average sea level would rise between 9 and 88cm between 1990 and 2100. However, in February 2007, The Working Group 1 (WGI) of the IPPC published a summary of the first of the four reports, which is due to be published later this year as IPPC Fourth Assessment Report. WG1 Report has the
following projections: Probable temperature rise between 3oC and 4oC (range 1.1oC to 6.4oC); Sea level likely to rise by 18-59cm, Arctic summer sea ice disappears in second half of century; increase in heat waves very likely and increase in tropical storm intensity likely, the latter being likely to cause especially severe problems for developing countries. This report concluded that there was a greater certainty (at least 90% certain) that human emissions of
greenhouse gases rather than natural variations are warming the planet's surface and most likely to cause sea level to rise. The need to prepare adaptive responses to reduce impacts cannot be overlooked irrespective of the possibility of mitigating some of the more extreme effects through emissions controls. However, the policy making process required for effective adaptive action is very complex due to several limitations impose by financial considerations and numerous physical, social, economic, legal and political factors. These limitations make developing countries more vulnerable because they have inadequate capacity in financial, planning, social, economic,
legal and political considerations. Three broad policy frameworks: protection, accommodation and retreat (IPPC, 2001) have evolved to deal with the impacts of sea level rise and climate change on coastal zone. This paper assesses the impacts of each policy option on coastal settlements and its resources in
developing countries and then attempts to identify the likely applicability’s of the alternative options, given the physical condition of a coast.