The foreseeable acceleration of global sea level rise could potentially
pose a major threat to the natural charm and functional integrity of the
world-renowned tourist coastal attractions of Rhodes Island, as a result
of the anticipated increasing frequency of flooding and erosion events.
Hence, this study aims to determine the most vulnerable segments (in
terms of physical impact) of the Rhodes coastline through the widely
accepted coastal vulnerability index (CVI), applying a combination of
well-known, broadly used approaches and methods. The frequency
distribution of the current CVI along the island’s coastline suggests a
rather worrying high to very high vulnerability of 40%. In addition, a
CVI projection to the end of the 21st century (based on the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predictive scenarios)
indicates an enhancement of the total vulnerability by 48%, mainly
focused on the majority of the western coastline. Hence, a considerable
number of popular coastal destinations in the island shall remain under
unignorable threat and, therefore, coastal managers and decision-makers
need to hatch an integrated plan to minimize economic and natural
losses, private property damage and tourism infrastructure deterioration
from flooding and erosion episodes, which will most likely be
intensified in the future
