Developing a Global Database for Coastal Vulnerability Analysis: Design Issues and Challenges

A global coastal database has been developed within the context of the DINAS-COAST project (Dynamic and Interactive Assessment of National, regional and Global Vulnerability of Coastal Zones to Climate Change and Sea-Level Rise). The database, which has been specifically designed to address the needs of researchers in the area of vulnerability assessment of coastal zones, integrates information on physical, ecological and socio-economic characteristics of the coast at various resolutions and covers the world’s coastline, excluding Antarctica. Initially developed within a Geographic Information System, this global database forms an integral part of the DINAS-COAST system and one of the principal components of DIVA, the modelling and assessment tool that the project has produced. In order to comply with the physical and functional requirements of this tool, the database design has been based on a linear data model for the representation of the world’s coast. According to this model, all the data in DIVA are expressed to linear coastal segments of variable length, thus giving the DIVA database a fundamentally different data structure to the more common raster datasets used in global studies. The decomposition of the world’s coastline into segments has been based on a series of physical, administrative and socio-economic criteria and has resulted in 12,148 segments which represent homogeneous units in terms of impacts and vulnerability to sea-level rise and constitute the reference units on which all subsequent modelling and analysis are based. The selection of the data model and the representation of coastal space within DIVA have constituted two of the main challenges of the database design and have formed the basis for the compilation of a reliable, coherent and easy-to-use database that allows for consistent evaluations of coastal-zone vulnerability to sea-level rise at regional and global scales. It is expected that the DINAS-COAST database will provide researchers and modellers from various disciplines with an efficient and consistent basis for studying coastal systems, assessing coastal vulnerability and formulating broad policy responses to climate change. ∗ Corresponding author