Oceans and coasts
Ocean and coastal risk joins slow change (sea-level rise, warming, acidification, deoxygenation) to sudden hazards (storm surge, tsunami, marine heatwaves) along coastlines where people, ports and fisheries concentrate.
- Institution
- The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI)
- Service level
- R0: information and enquiries
The short answer.
Oceans and coasts as a field of risk covers marine ecosystems, coastal hazards such as surge and erosion, sea-level rise and the coastal communities and economies that depend on them. In the Nexus Consortium it is studied as science at GCRI by Biodiversity Nexus as well as Oceans and Coasts; this gateway links those platforms and the methods they share.
The field, seen three ways.
Governance and dialogue
No platform yet in this field.
Financial understanding
No platform yet in this field.
Committed sea-level rise and coastal lock-in.
Sea-level rise will continue for centuries because of heat already in the ocean and ice-sheet response; the IPCC assessed the low-likelihood, high-impact ice-sheet processes as a key reason for deep uncertainty in the upper range. Coastal infrastructure built now has lifetimes that run into that range, so the decision problem is choosing adaptation pathways that keep options open.
- Ports and coastal energy assets as single points of failure for trade.
- Marine heatwaves that collapse fisheries and coral reefs within a season.
- Salinisation of coastal aquifers and deltas, with consequences for water and food.
Law of the sea and observing systems.
| Framework or body | What it governs or supplies |
|---|---|
| UN Convention on the Law of the Sea | Maritime zones and the duty to protect the marine environment |
| BBNJ Agreement | Marine biodiversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction, including area-based tools and impact assessment |
| UNESCO IOC | Tsunami warning systems and ocean science coordination |
| Global Ocean Observing System and Argo | Sustained physical, biogeochemical and biological observation |
Coast, trade and food.
- Trade: port disruption and chokepoint closure.
- Cities: coastal megacities and subsidence.
- Nature: reefs, mangroves and seagrass as protection and habitat.
- Food: fisheries and aquaculture.
The science sits on Oceans and Coasts; methods start from ocean science.
The methods behind the field.
- Ecology and biodiversity science
- Earth observation and remote sensing
- Spatial statistics and geostatistics
- Geospatial information systems
- Complex systems and agent-based modelling
- Causal inference and impact evaluation
- Hydrology and water science
- Ocean and coastal science
- Extreme value theory and tail risk
- Earth and geophysical science
- Water and environmental engineering
Terms used on this page.
Each term as this page uses it. Where a standard-setting body defines the term, the wording follows that body.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Relative sea level | Sea level measured relative to the land, combining ocean change and vertical land motion. |
| Coastal flood | Flooding of coastal land by the sea, caused by high tides, storm surge and waves on top of mean sea level. |
| Blue economy | Economic activity that uses or depends on the ocean and coasts, often with an aim of sustainability. |
| Marine heatwave | A prolonged period of unusually high sea temperature relative to a seasonal climatology. |
Where this page's references lead.
The bodies and documents this page is read against. Status and editions change; each link goes to the issuing body.
Questions and answers.
Why does GCRI host field gateways?
Around GCRI.
Start with an enquiry.
The current service level is R0: information and enquiries. An enquiry receives a reference and names the next step; applications, payments, compute allocations and registrations open only when their team, terms and review capacity exist.