FUTURISKS: Past-to-FUTURe coastal RISKS in Tropical French Overseas Island Territories: from impacts to solutions (Leads: Virginie DUVAT & Xavier BERTIN, UMRi LIENSs 7266)
Tropical small islands are increasingly exposed to climate-ocean related hazards, including sea-level rise, extreme sea-levels, and marine heatwaves. Recent studies project a significative increase in coastal erosion and marine flooding over the 21st century in these settings. To date, major knowledge gaps constrain adaptation policies, which relate to the physical processes driving hazards, the chains of impacts of climate-ocean events, as well as the extent to which the various adaptation solutions are used on the ground and the enablers and barriers to their design, implementation, and success. FUTURISKS addresses these gaps by focusing on French overseas tropical island countries and territories. It will improve our understanding of (i) the physical processes controlling coastal erosion and marine flooding, (ii) the cascades of impacts of compound ocean-climate events and associated amplification processes and tipping points, and (iii) the risk reduction and climate adaptation policies and measures implemented in these settings. FUTURISKS concretely assists institutional actors in observation activities, and in the design, implementation and evaluation of risk reduction and climate adaptation policies and measures.