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Review
. 2025;4(1):89.
doi: 10.1038/s44168-025-00297-4. Epub 2025 Sep 24.

How an economic and financial perspective could guide transformational adaptation to sea level rise

Kees C H van Ginkel  1   2 , Bart Rijken  1 , Marco Hoogvliet  1 , Wesley van Veggel  1 , W J Wouter Botzen  2 , Tatiana Filatova  3
Affiliations
Review

How an economic and financial perspective could guide transformational adaptation to sea level rise

Kees C H van Ginkel et al. NPJ Clim Action. 2025.

Abstract

Accelerating sea level rise puts pressure on coastlines globally. Wealthy urbanized deltas like The Netherlands have historically followed the strategy of building increasingly large flood defence systems. But there is growing attention for 'transformational' alternatives such as adapting ('accommodating') land use to increasing flood risk. Until now, debates on coastal adaptation strategies have focused on aspects in the realm of the natural and engineering sciences. There has been limited attention to broader financial and economic arguments such as the increased financial risks associated with ever higher flood defence systems or the potential real estate devaluation of an 'accommodate-retreat' strategy. We advocate for a dialogue in which such economic and financial mechanisms are acknowledged, understood and thoroughly integrated into adaptation discourse.

Keywords: Climate-change impacts; Economics; Engineering.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interestsThe authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Socioeconomic and flood risk characteristics of The Netherlands.
a Population density per land area (/km2) in 2024, b economic output per land area (million euro/km2) in 2022, c maximum flood water depth from river and coastal flooding (m) in the present climate (for the 1:100,000 year flood event) and d expected flood probability when flood protection standards are met in 2050. Source data (c, d): Ministry of Infrastructure and Water www.basisinformatie-overstromingen.nl.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2. Four archetypical strategies for dealing with SLR in The Netherlands.
Image by Carof beeldleveranciers for Deltares.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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