The vulnerability to climate change of Cotonou (Benin):: the rise in sea level

In Benin, like most other coastal nations, a high proportion of the population and the largest city are on the coast. In Benin's case, half the nation's population (over 3 million inhabitants) is on the coast and in the city of Cotonou, in the Gulf of Guinea. The coastal location is important to Cotonou's economy but the coastal region is vulnerable to sea-level rise, with potentially catastrophic impacts on the economy, the population and natural systems. The continued advance of the sea, coastal erosion and the rise in sea level, exacerbated by human activity on the coast, have medium- and long-term consequences that are already threatening vulnerable communities and disrupting the least-protected sensitive ecosystems. This paper focuses on the erosion of Benin's coastal region, and analyzes biophysical and socioeconomic vulnerability to the rising sea levels and coastal erosion affecting the city of Cotonou and its coastal plain; it also discusses the ways in which vulnerability could be reduced. © 2006 Sage Publications.