About iCAR

Use research and education to provide the understanding and ideas needed to make critical decisions regarding our changing and vulnerable coast.
Engage stakeholders to facilitate adoption of policies and practices focused on coastal adaptation and resilience.
This is transdisciplinary initiative includes the sciences, engineering, policy and social sciences and will examine the interactions between climate change, water systems, land use, the built environment, and ecosystem functions. Read more.

According to World Bank 2013 report, 10 Coastal Cities at Greatest Flood Risk as Sea Levels Rise:

“Forecasts that average global flood losses will multiply from $6 billion per year in 2005 to $52 billion a year by 2050 with just social-economic factors, such as increasing population and property value, taken into account.
Add in the risks from sea-level rise and sinking land, and global flood damage for large coastal cities could cost $1 trillion a year if cities don’t take steps to adapt.” (lead author Hallegatte, Senior Economist, World Bank)
“Coastal defenses reduce the risk of floods today, but they also attract population and assets in protected areas and thus put them at risk in case of the defense fails, or if an event overwhelms it. “
If they are not upgraded regularly and proactively as risk increases with climate change and subsidence, defenses can magnify – not reduce – the vulnerability of some cities,” Hallegatte, Senior Economist, World Bank.

To find multi-dimensional and flexible solutions using an integrative but flexible decision support systems. Read more.

INITIATIVE ON COASTAL ADAPTATION AND RESILIENCE (iCAR)