The latest issue of Intersections looks at the social impacts of global climate change and examines how people living in the low-elevation coastal zones are adapting to global sea level rise by migrating. These living spaces are increasingly being hit by storms and floods, forcing people there to find strategies to cope with these environmental threats. For many coastal populations, migration has become one means of adaptation and survival.

In “Sea Level Rise and the Vulnerability of Coastal Peoples: Responding to the Local Challenges of Global Climate Change in the 21st Century“, Prof. Anthony Oliver-Smith considers forced migration as a consequence of sea level rise to be a social issue that needs to be addressed by policy makers. He presents case studies from five different coastal areas, showing how local communities cope with displacement and migration differently. He also examines if, and how, communities can adapt in ways that allow them to remain stable, and to keep their culture and identity.

Prof. Oliver-Smith´s analysis formulates urgent research questions that need to be answered to support coastal communities around the world whose livelihoods are inevitably and increasingly threatened by rising sea levels.

Prof. Anthony Oliver-Smith held the Munich Re Foundation Chair on Social Vulnerability at the UNU Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) in Bonn, Germany, for 2007-8.

Intersections (Interdisciplinary Security ConnecTions) is a publication series of UNU-EHS.