Options to protect coastlines and secure maritime jurisdictional claims in the face of global sea level rise

It is now widely accepted that significant sea level rise is taking place and that this phenomenon is likely to accelerate in the future. This poses potentially disastrous implications for many coastal States, especially those with large and heavily populated low-lying coastal areas, as well as small low-lying island States. In addition to the essentially terrestrial, inward-looking threat posed to low-lying coastal areas and their associated populations from inundation by rising seas, threats also exist looking outward from the land to the ocean spaces adjacent to such threatened territories. In particular, sea level rise has the potential to significantly affect national claims to maritime jurisdiction all the way to the outward extent of maritime zones.