Poised on the frontlines of climate change, the world's most vulnerable shoreline communities face an uncertain future. Plagued by ever-worsening coastal erosion and rising sea levels, their existence hangs precariously in the balance. As the tide continues to draw in, click or scroll to see 17 towns being gradually reclaimed by the ocean...

The Californian shoreline is one of the world's coastal erosion hotspots. Almost three-quarters of the state's coastline is eroding and while this stretch of shore has been wearing away since the last Ice Age, the process is set to intensify in the coming years. The city of Pacifica near San Francisco is especially susceptible.

A barrage of intense storms in the winter of 2015/16 played havoc with the community. Destructive waves and surf battered the coastline, hastening the erosion of Pacifica's cliffs and leaving a number of houses and apartment buildings perching perilously close to the cliff edge.

Residents had to be evacuated, with some properties deemed uninhabitable. The condemned buildings have since been demolished. Many other structures in the city are at risk – in 2018, the powers that be issued an enormous fine of nearly $1.5 million to the owners of a clifftop apartment complex for failing to carry out adequate repairs to the bluff where the block sits.

Perched on the edge of Corsica, an island off the south coast of France, the medieval town of Bonifacio has weathered whatever storms Mother Nature has thrown its way over the centuries. However, thanks to strong sea currents, high wind speeds and frequent landslides, the future of this idyllic Mediterranean settlement is under threat.

The foot of the sandstone cliff where Bonifacio is located has retreated due to severe erosion over hundreds of years, leaving a dramatic overhang, where some thirty homes balance on the edge. While luckily no properties have tumbled to the waves, a state of emergency was declared in the town in 2019 when parts of the medieval fortress crumbled under the force of the wind.

A report on climate change and the marine environment in Corsica published in 2018 by the International Union for Conservation of Nature concluded that global warming was contributing to the area's erosion issues, predicting that extreme storm events in the future and rising sea levels will put the coastline at increasing risk. The report urged the town's authorities to address the perilous situation, sooner rather than later. 

A warmer world means fiercer and more frequent storms and ever more damaging waves and storm surges, which doesn't bode well for places like Happisburgh on England's east coast, one of the fastest eroding shorelines in Europe. Battling for survival against the sea, Happisburgh's soft clay and sand cliffs have been crumbling for the past 5,000 years, and over the last two decades, at least 35 homes have been lost to the waves.

A catastrophic storm surge in 2013 left a slew of homes teetering on the edge of the village's cliffs – and they were the lucky ones. Other dwellings fell dramatically into the sea. Over the next 20 years, Happisburgh is predicted to relinquish more land to the sea than any other location in the UK.

In fact, experts estimate that the village will lose the equivalent of two football pitches over the next two decades. With Happisburgh's timber defenses nearing the end of their life, the future of the village looks very bleak indeed.

The picturesque resort town of Soulac-sur-Mer is located on the swiftly eroding Aquitaine coast in south-western France. From year to year, the shoreline here is retreating fast and as climate change intensifies, the situation is poised to get much worse.

Le Signal apartment building has become the poster child for climate change-induced coastal erosion in France. Built in the 1960s, the Brutalist housing block was constructed on an artificial dune and was originally located over 600 feet from the ocean.

Today, Le Signal stands around 40 feet from the encroaching Atlantic. The building was evacuated in 2014 and subsequently condemned, following a succession of eight winter storms that caused rapid erosion to the coastline. Having lost the fight with Mother Nature, it patiently awaits demolition.

Ukraine's third-most populous city is located on a so-called landslide coast on the Black Sea. Inhabitants of the port and popular holiday resort have been battling with the tide for centuries. The most vulnerable structures, pictured here, are those facing the ocean, which were built on particularly weak clay soil.

During the 1960s, the city spent astronomical sums of money on coastal defenses, creating everything from breakwaters and dikes to extensive sea walls, but these defenses have fallen into disrepair, leaving parts of Odessa and its suburbs under increasing threat.

As you can see from these images, the result is a row of dangerously unstable waterside properties literally teetering on the brink, with some even falling into the sea. The future looks pretty grave for this Black Sea community.

Alaska is warming twice as fast as the global average and many of its coastal communities face being wiped out as a nightmarish combination of melting permafrost, worsening storms and rising sea levels take their toll. The town of Shishmaref is one of the most threatened spots in the state.

In this coastal enclave, up to 10 feet of shoreline is being swallowed up by the sea each year, according to research by the US Army Corps of Engineers and Alabama-based Auburn University. In 2002, Shishmaref's residents voted to move the entire town. A new location was eventually selected, but the move has been delayed on account of the cost, which is estimated to run into hundreds of millions of dollars.

In 2016, a second vote took place, with locals once again reaffirming their wish to relocate the community. Residents have resorted to building a sea wall to protect the town while they await relocation, but sooner or later the land on which Shishmaref stands will be below water, a victim of the warming that is set to devastate the Arctic.

A magnet for surfers, Collaroy Beach in the northern Sydney suburb of the same name is one of Australia's most at-risk coastal areas. Though wild storms have destroyed homes in Collaroy since the suburb was established, climate change is increasing their frequency and intensity, exacerbating coastal erosion.

The worst storm of recent years hit in June 2016. Towering waves whipped up by strong winds pounded the shoreline, smashing up beachfront homes and infrastructure. The storm coincided with a severely high 'king tide' that magnified its effects. All in all, 164 feet of coastline vanished.

Collaroy was subjected to another major storm in February 2020. Again, the storm coincided with abnormally high tides and created huge waves. This time, around 80 feet of beach was swept away, though the majority of homes along the shoreline escaped serious damage.

Further down the Norfolk coast from Happisburgh, Hemsby in the UK is also being eaten away by the sea, bit by bit. Like Happisburgh, the village was devastated by that December 2013 storm surge, which resulted in the destruction of seven homes.

When the so-called 'Beast from the East' storm struck in March 2018, the village was one of the worst affected spots on the Norfolk coast. During the tempest, a total of 13 clifftop homes in an area of the seafront called The Marrams were left uninhabitable.

Currently, around 20 homes are under immediate threat and a further 100 have been deemed vulnerable. Fortunately, plans are afoot to construct a multimillion-pound rock berm to protect the village, while in the meantime, according to the Eastern Daily Press, one resident has taken it upon himself to build his own defenses to ensure the survival of his home at a cost of $130,000 and rising.

Coastal erosion in Hawaii is a perennial problem, but rising sea levels are making matters a whole lot more serious. A shocking 70% of beaches on the islands of Kauai, Maui and Oahu are being slowly consumed by the sea, with the issue particularly acute in Sunset Beach on Oahu's North Shore.

The erosion affecting Sunset Beach has been unprecedented in recent years. A run of exceptionally large surge episodes in 2017 saw waves of up to 40 feet and caused extreme erosion, threatening homes along the coastline.

The authorities have responded by issuing homeowners with permits to install tarps filled with sand in front of their homes, but these so-called 'sand burritos' are merely temporary and a long-term solution to deal with the eroding coastline is proving elusive.

Back on the fast-disappearing California coastline, the bluffs of Isla Vista are wearing away at a rate of 20 inches per year, which doesn't sound like a lot, but actually puts them among the fastest-eroding coastal features in the state.

Homes have had to be torn down in recent years due to cliff collapses, the worst of which occurred in 2017. To deal with the threat and safeguard residents, Santa Barbara County has tightened regulations pertaining to the 84 properties perched on the bluffs.

Cliffhanging properties that impinge on a 10-foot buffer face the threat of being demolished unless they can be supported by caissons. Formerly the buffer was just five feet. While the new rule may protect residents for the time being, no long-term solution has yet been offered up. 

Another village on England's east coast that is enduring alarming erosion, Skipsea in East Yorkshire could very well be erased from the map in the not-so-distant future. The sea is chomping away at the village's soft clay soils, hastened by climate change.

Around 13 feet of coastline is being lost every year and during the past two decades, approximately half a mile of land has gone, according to residents. Entire streets have disappeared along with the homes that once stood on them, and many more houses are at risk.

A recent council report has warned that 24 homes in the village are at imminent risk of collapsing into the sea. Existing defenses are said to be inadequate, so it seems unlikely these homes will be saved. Sadly, Skipsea's days appear to be numbered.

California isn't the only American state grappling with relentless coastal erosion. Florida also has its fair share of issues when it comes to receding shorelines, most notably in Vilano Beach. Hurricanes and tropical storms, which are set to become more destructive in the future, have done untold damage to the beach and its structures over the years.

Every time a hurricane or tropical storm hits, the residents of Vilano Beach worry whether their vacation homes will end up being claimed by the ocean, and many dwellings have already succumbed to these potent forces of nature.

The owners of beach homes in the area have gone to great lengths to protect their investments. They've clubbed together to construct a sea wall and imported huge amounts of sand to repair the beach, but as the planet warms, these efforts may have to be stepped up significantly.

In addition to hurricanes and tropical storms, Topsail Island in North Carolina is also vulnerable to nor'easter storms. In November 2019, a nasty nor'easter washed away sand dunes and damaged beach houses.

Hurricane Florence, which slammed into the Carolinas in September 2018, was even more destructive. The unforgiving storm washed away swaths of sand dunes and damaged or completely destroyed hundreds of beach houses.

Millions of dollars have been spent rebuilding the sand dunes, repairing damaged homes and infrastructure and demolishing condemned structures, but some local officials and property owners may feel that they are fighting a losing battle, given the frequency of these severe erosion events.

The fastest-sinking city in the world, Jakarta is at risk of being the first megatropolis to be decimated by climate change. Experts have warned that large parts of the Indonesian capital, which is home to 10 million people, could be underwater by 2050.

Constructed on low-lying swampy land that is gradually sinking, many homes experience nightmarish flooding. Already, almost half of Jakarta sits below sea level and as the global level rises, the future prospects for the city are grim, to say the least.

The issues Jakarta faces are being worsened by the aggressive extraction of groundwater for day-to-day use, which has led to increased subsidence. The authorities have responded to the existential threat by constructing the $40 billion Great Garuda, a vast 15-mile sea wall, but only time will tell if the megaproject will be enough to save Jakarta...

Venice is pretty much in the same boat as Jakarta if you excuse the pun. Rising sea levels present an existential threat to the breathtakingly beautiful city. Climate scientists even predict that the tourist hotspot will be entirely underwater by the end of the 21st century.

In November 2019, Venice suffered a high tide or 'acqua alta' of six feet, the second-highest on record, which flooded over 80% of the city, leaving its most famous landmarks such as Piazza San Marco underwater.

Like their counterparts in Jakarta, the Venetian authorities are hoping an ambitious flood defense project will save the city, but the enormous system of barriers, which was earmarked for completion in 2011, is yet to be finished. The MOSE megaproject, as it's called, has been mired by jaw-dropping cost overruns and delays.

New Orleans is confronting a similar predicament. Much of the Louisiana city lies below sea level and rests on marshy, loose soil that is prone to subsidence. New Orleans' overburdened municipal drainage system has further destabilized the land the city sits on and rising sea levels coupled with the threat of worsening hurricanes and storm surges are only adding to its woes.

The devastation inflicted on the city by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 elicited a major response from the authorities. Since then, over 350 miles of floodwalls, levees and other coastal defenses have been constructed at a cost of $20 billion. Nevertheless, many experts believe a lot more needs to be done to protect New Orleans and prevent the city from being inundated in the future. 

In July 2019, The Big Easy was hit by Tropical Storm Barry, which again submerged swaths of the city, while flooding also occurred back in 2017. Unfortunately, the future doesn't look bright for New Orleans – according to a NASA study, parts of the city are sinking at a rate of two inches per year, putting it on track to be underwater in 2100.

In recent decades, the dazzling coastline of New South Wales in the south-east of Australia has been plagued by coastal erosion, and the suburb of Wamberal, north of Sydney, has been especially hard-hit. A popular spot for luxury beach homes, the shore was battered by extreme storms in 2016, eating up around 23 feet of beach, leaving many properties balancing precariously on the cliff edge.

Fast-forward to July 2020 and the coastline was once again ravaged by a large swell. Homes worth millions of dollars were ordered to evacuate when freak waves rocked the shoreline, stripping away the sandy soil and leaving many of the property's foundations exposed. Several homes partially collapsed – the ground beneath this house was all but swept away, while to the right, a residence teeters on the brink of collapse, with huge swaths of the interior exposed to the elements.

This is by no means a new phenomenon in Wamberal – homes were destroyed back in 1974 and 1978 too, however, in the aftermath of the storms in 2016, a rather dark secret came to light. Asbestos was found scattered along the beach after erosion revealed building waste buried in the sand dunes, with more of the hazardous material discovered following July's devastation, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. Fast action will be necessary if there's any hope of curbing the environmental disaster in this toxic town.

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