DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.15194955
title: Global losses to sandy coast ecosystem services under future sea level rise

description: This dataset contains results and replication data/code for an analysis of global losses to sandy coast ecosystem services under future sea level rise. The analysis can be reproduced by downloading the input data (except detailed transect data which can be obtained from Panagiotis Athanasiou at Deltares upon request) and running the MATLAB script 'ecosystem_loss_analysis_script.m'.

The main results of ecosystem loss is available in the 'Results' folder together with results of a sensitivity analysis to model assumptions.

The format of the result tables is as follows:

ESVloss_VARIABLE_TOPOBARRIER_ARTIBARRIER_PORTS_SANDY_DRIVER_DEM_BEACHMIGRATION, where:



VARIABLE is the variable contained in the result table:



total_area: total area (existing or lost) by land cover type (km^2)

total_detail: total ecosystem value (existing or lost) by ecosystem service type (million USD)

total_unc: total ecosystem value (existing or lost) by percentile of uncertainty distribution of ecosystem service valuation (million USD)

total_length: average erosion/accretion length (m)

group_abs: total ecosystem value (existing or lost) by groups of countries (million USD)

group_pc: total ecosystem value (existing or lost) by groups of countries as % of gross domestic product (GDP)

group_rel: total ecosystem value lost by groups of countries as % of existing value

country_abs: total ecosystem value (existing or lost) by country (million USD)

country_pc: total ecosystem value (existing or lost) by country as % of gross domestic product (GDP)

country_rel: total ecosystem value lost by country as % of existing value



TOPOBARRIER indicates height of topographic barrier in meters (default: 10 m)

ARTIBARRIER indicates presence of artificial barriers ('artibarrier' - default) or lack thereof ('noartibarrier')

PORTS indicates if erosion is allowed near ports ('ports' - default) or not ('noports')

SANDY indicated if the analysis includes only sandy coastlines ('sandy' - default) or all coastlines ('all')

DRIVER indicates the driver of coastal erosion: sea level rise ('slr' - default), ambient change ('amb') or combined sea level rise and ambient change ('all')

DEM indicates the elevation model, by default the maximum elevation of two models, DeltaDTM, or CopDEM.

BEACHMIGRATION: indicates is migration of coastal systems is allowed ('beachmigration' - default) or not ('nobeachmigration')


The files have common format, with first or two columns indicating the categories, the next column 'Value_2023' indicates existing ecosystem service value, and remaining columns show the value of losses per scenario: 'SXXX_YYYY_PP', where:



XXX indicates warming scenario ('1p5', '2p0', '3p0', '4p0'), by 1.5, 2, 3 or 4 degrees above preindustrial global mean temperature.

YYYY indicates the year (2050, 2100 or 2150)

PP indicates the percentile of the uncertainty distribution of coastal erosion extent (1, 5, 17, 50, 83, 95, 99th)


Tables with results by country use ISO 3166-1 numeric codes. For details on countries, including their assignments to country groups, see 'Scenarios_GDP_regional_divisions.csv' file.

Tables with results by land cover type or ecosystem service type use classification from 'Scenarios_ecosystem_values_2024USD',

All values in USD are valuated at 2024 price levels and purchasing power parity (PPP).

All values relative to GDP use data on GDP for year 2023 (see 'Scenarios_GDP_regional_divisions.csv') based on 2017 PPPs adjusted to 2024 price level.

This dataset has in been updated in 2026 using revised estimates of ecosystem values.