Context

• According to a study that uses a new modelling approach the number of Indians who stand to be affected by rising sea levels may have been underestimated by as much as 88%.

Details:

• In India, 36 million people would face annual flooding by 2050 and 44 million by 2100 if emissions continue to rise unabated. Nearly 21 million and not 2.8 million are expected to be living below the High Tide Line, the boundary that marks the farthest to which the sea reaches into the land at high tide.
• Analysis suggests that globally nearly 110 million people live on land below the current high tide lines and 250 million on land below annual flood levels, in contrast with SRTM-based estimates of 28 million and 65 million respectively.
• Climate change has caused global mean sea level to rise by 11-16 cm in the 20th century and is expected to by as much as 2 m by the end of this century. Other than India, the flood risk has also been underestimated for China at 93 million, as opposed to the current estimates of 29 million; Bangladesh at 42 million vs 5 million; Vietnam 31 million vs 9 million; Indonesia 23 million vs 5 million; Thailand 12 million vs 1 million.

Source: TH