A Review of Climate Change Impact on the Built Environment in Coastal Regions

The climate change impact highly threatens coastal regions. Coastal populations face a range of climate-related risks such as cyclones, sea-level rise, and coastal flooding. The built environment has a significant impact over the local climate and environment of coastal communities. Coastal areas are identified to be central locations of human habitats creating coastal urban centres further enhances the risk. Therefore, developing substantial climate adaptation strategies for the built environment in coastal regions is essential. In developing suitable adaptation measures, it is essential to understand the impacts of climate change on the coastal built environment in detail. This research is conducted as a part of a colloborative research project BEACON (Built Environment leArning for Climate adaptation), co-financed by the European Union Erasmus + programme. This study conducted a detailed review of the climate change impact on the built environment in coastal regions. A systematic literature review based on three academic databases Science Direct, Emerald Insight and Scopus, was conducted. The synthesised data were analysed using the thematic analysis technique, and the climate change impacts were mainly categorised as physical and non-physical impacts. The primary climate change evidence in coastal regions is sea level rise, weather conditions, and precipitation changes. The associated disaster risks and their physical and non-physical (economic, social, and environmental) impacts in the coastal regions have been summarised into a single framework. This could be used as a basis to develop tangible climate adaptation measures in the coastal built environment.