Facilitating global coastal resilience

Core partners

The Coastal Hazard Wheel initiative facilitates global coastal resilience by developing and maintaining a shared, science-based reference framework for understanding, classifying, and addressing coastal hazards and adaptation, built around three core elements:

A globally consistent classification of coastal environments

Screening-level multi-hazard profiles and adaptation option logic to support hazard screening and coastal planning

An open foundation for practical application, interoperability, and AI-assisted decision support

Coastal Hazard Wheel explained

The key to the world's coastlines

The Coastal Hazard Wheel is a universal, science-based coastal classification and management framework that supports coherent coastal management and climate change adaptation. It can be used as a shared coastal language to help bridge science, policy, planning and public communication. Based on a comprehensive global coastal classification system, it functions as a key for characterising coastal locations, identifying inherent hazard profiles under a changing climate, and highlighting relevant management and adaptation approaches to support integrated coastal management and communication. The Coastal Hazard Wheel App translates this framework into practice by providing consistent global coastal classification, hazard mapping, and basic, relevant adaptation guidance for the world’s coastlines. Ongoing development will further enhance this functionality through the integration of additional datasets and AI-assisted components, enabling more detailed and context-specific guidance over time.

Download brief PDF (1.3 MB)

More information

Coastal Classification System

(start in wheel centre)

UNEP Guide

Publication package for coastal stakeholders

Guidebook

Download

Guidebook

Download

Annex

Download

Global coastal analytics

GeoICT & GIS

Coastal Hazard Wheel App

The Coastal Hazard Wheel App for coastal classification, hazard management and communication activities.

National classification and hazard management schemes

National coastal classification, hazard management and standardized communication schemes are implemented on request.

ArcGIS templates for manual coastal hazard assessments

Pre-prepared ArcGIS templates for manual multi-hazard-assessments at local to national level.

Scientific background material

Publications & graphics

Scientific methodology documentation

The scientific methodology documentation is available as scientific papers with open access.

Downloads in official UN languages

The UNEP brief & CHW graphic is available for download in officially translated versions.

Coastal Hazard Wheel graphics

The Coastal Hazard Wheel graphic is available in different formats and can be used freely with proper citation.

Get updated

New developments

Coastal Hazard Wheel used for adaptation assessment of 41 island states

The Coastal Hazard Wheel is being used for assessment of coastal climate change hazards, development of national exposure statistics and adaptation recommendations for the world's 41 Small Island Developing States (SIDS). The analysis is carried out at the request of FAO and will contribute to FAO's global program on strengthening the climate resilience of the SIDS and the implementation of timely adaptation and management measures.

Coastal Hazard Wheel used for climate change adaptation in West Africa

The Coastal Hazard Wheel is being used for a regional coastal classification, hazard management and standardized communication scheme for the West African region coordinated by the regional coastal authority WACOM. The activities are implemented based on a request from WACOM and nine West African countries to the UNFCCC Climate Technology Centre & Network and aim to strengthen coastal governance and climate change adaptation from local to regional level.

New national erosion assessment for Colombia published

The assessment has been carried out as part of the development of a Colombian coastal Master Plan. It provides information on coastal types, hazard levels and management perspectives and investigates possibilities for using global open access data for regional assessments. Furthermore, it tests the automatization processes of the Coastal Hazard Wheel App. The assessment has been published as a scientific paper that can be downloaded from the Colombian pin above.

New UNEP water technologies publication uses CHW for input

The publication introduces 102 adaptation technologies for building resilience to climate change in the water sector. It provides a comprehensive overview of specific water adaptation technologies and techniques to address climate change challenges and to help build adaptive capacity. The CHW has been used for inputs to the coastal technology taxonomy and for specific technology descriptions. The publication can be downloaded from UNEP-DHI's main webpage.

Coastal Hazard Wheel used for erosion assessment for Malta

The Coastal Hazard Wheel is used for a national erosion assessment for Malta. The assessment is carried out by researchers at University of Malta and includes generation of national hazard maps, coastal classification information and management considerations. The assessment aims to support national decision-making and is available as a scientific paper published in Ocean & Coastal Management.

Coastal Hazard Wheel platform operational

The Coastal Hazard Wheel / Open Access Platform will constitute the hub for all activities related to Coastal Hazard Wheel system. It will provide direct access to all scientific and technical background information and provide the basis for ongoing big data activities on classification of the world's coastlines. It is the aim that the platform over time will offer interactive global coastal classification and management data for coastal stakeholders worldwide.

UNEP Coastal Hazard Wheel publication package released

The UNEP publication package on the Coastal Hazard Wheel provides a complete guide to the CHW system and consists of four components, namely the Executive Summary, the Quick start guide, the Main manual and the Catalogue of hazard management options. The publication package provides guidance to the full range of stakeholders involved in coastal adaptation activities and the Executive Summary is translated to all official UN languages.

Coastal Hazard Wheel presentation at UNEP-DHI webinar

The Coastal Hazard Wheel is presented as part of UNEP-DHI webinar series on Source-to-Sea Management. The webinar aims to increase the understanding of cross-disciplinary issues for achieving UN SDG6 on freshwater and UN SDG14 on oceans and covers approaches to assess, track and model Source-to-Sea interactions. It will take place 15th August, 15.00 CEST and it is possible to sign up or access recordings through UNEP-DHI's website.

Coastal Hazard Wheel used in Vietnam & Bangladesh

The Coastal Hazard Wheel is currently being used for case assessments in Vietnam and Bangladesh and the results will be incorporated in the further development of the global coastal classification system. Technical assessment information, results and relevant policy conclusions will be provided as soon as they are published and more information including relevant contact points is provided on request.

Featured Resources

Engineering guidance for coastal protection