North Africa Coastal Cities Address Natural Disasters and Climate Change

North Africa's coastal cities, long
benefitting from their ready access to commerce and culture,
also face distinct vulnerabilities due to their location.
Natural hazards and extreme weather patterns impose risks on
coastal areas that inland areas seldom encounter. North
Africa's increasingly populous cities face tangible
risks today, but these will be amplified as the impacts of
global climate change further manifest themselves over the
decades to come. The study, 'climate change adaptation
and natural disasters preparedness in the coastal cities of
North Africa,' analyzed the exposure of all four
locations to natural disasters, such as floods and storm
surges, earthquakes and tsunamis, as well as to the
increasingly frequent weather extremes associated with
climate change. The project, which has taken place from June
2009 to June 2011, has provided tools for evaluating the
risks, costing out potential losses, and moving toward
specific reforms and investments designed to adapt the
cities to a changing climate and increase their resilience
to natural hazards.