Estimating population and urban areas at risk of coastal hazards, 1990–2015: how data choices matter

MacManus, Kytt; Balk, Deborah; Engin, Hasim; McGranahan, Gordon; Inman, Rya

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-5747-2021

Articles | Volume 13, issue 12

https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-5747-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-5747-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 13, issue 12

Review article

|

14 Dec 2021

Review article |

| 14 Dec 2021

Estimating population and urban areas at risk of coastal hazards, 1990–2015: how data choices matter

Kytt MacManus, Deborah Balk, Hasim Engin, Gordon McGranahan, and Rya Inman

Data sets

Low Elevation Coastal Zone Urban-Rural Population and Land Area Estimates (1990, 2000, 2015) Version 3 Center for International Earth Science Information Network - CIESIN - Columbia University and CUNY Institute for Demographic Research - CIDR - City University of New York https://doi.org/10.7927/d1x1-d702

Model code and software

Python Code for Low Elevation Coastal Zone (LECZ) Urban-Rural Population and Land Area Estimates, Version 3 Center for International Earth Science Information Network - CIESIN - Columbia University and CUNY Institute for Demographic Research - CIDR - City University of New York https://doi.org/10.7927/d1x1-d702

Short summary

New estimates of population and land area by settlement types within low-elevation coastal zones (LECZs) based on four sources of population data, four sources of settlement data and four sources of elevation data for the years 1990, 2000 and 2015. The paper describes the sensitivity of these estimates and discusses the fitness of use guiding user decisions. Data choices impact the number of people estimated within LECZs, but across all sources the LECZs are predominantly urban and growing.