Australia; International; VIC
A study looking into patterns of human settlement near coastlines across the world has found that people are moving further away from the coast in over half of the regions examined, while a small proportion is moving closer to the coastline. The study used night-time light changes between 1992 and 2019 to look at which groups of people had moved closer to or further away from the coast. They found that there was a weak link between communities retreating from coasts and previous experiences of coastal climate hazards. They also found that communities that stayed close to the coast tended to have more structural protections, such as flood levees, and a greater ability to adapt, while retreat was faster in regions with greater vulnerability to coastal climate hazards. In Australia, communities were either staying put or retreating at a relatively slow rate.
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