Interactive map charts sea incursion in Mediterranean coastal wetlands

An interactive map and database simulates the rise in sea levels faced by Mediterranean coastal wetlands over the coming century – and illustrates the impacts this will have, not only on biodiversity but also on tourism, food security and local economies.

A Flooded Future has been developed by the Wetland-based Solutions project, an undertaking that aims to restore coastal wetlands in the Mediterranean region, among other goals.

Today, millions of people who live in coastal areas of the Mediterranean basin are threatened by the twin crises of nature loss and climate change. Rapidly rising sea levels along with a heating planet will bring unprecedented biodiversity loss both on land and underwater, along with water shortages, wildfires, and increasingly strong and frequent extreme weather events. This will have inevitable social, economic and ecological consequences, from a loss of livelihoods and food security, to coastal erosion and saltwater incursion.

A Flooded Future “focuses on three of the most vulnerable coastal wetland sites in the Mediterranean, using them as case studies to illustrate what we can expect to experience in the coming decades – but it also shows how saving and restoring these essential landscapes can minimize the impacts, and protect us from irreversible consequences.”

Case studies (as described by the project):

• “In Millimeters that will cost MILLIONS, the case study for Oristano, Sardinia, our experts demonstrate how restoring coastal wetlands has significant economic benefits.”
• “In the area of the Bojana-Buna Delta (in both Montenegro and Albania), the lands of 8,269 producers are threatened by rising sea levels. By 2100, 50 km² of agricultural land could end up under the sea.”
• “In Ghar El Melh, Tunisia, by 2100 the sea level is expected to rise by an incredible 1,000 millimetres– a sink-or-swim situation for the local community.”

“A Flooded Future is coming – BUT by working together to save and restore our wetlands we can build a better future for people and nature across the Mediterranean. We invite you to explore these stories in more detail to show your audience how we will all be impacted by rising sea-levels in the coming years – and, most importantly of all, what we can do to reduce the damage.”