Standing precariously on the frontlines of climate change, the world's most vulnerable shoreline communities face a perilous future. Plagued by ever-worsening coastal erosion, rising sea levels and catastrophic flooding, their futures hang dangerously in the balance.

As storms increase in ferocity and coastlines crumble, we take a look at 17 towns being gradually reclaimed by the ocean.

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On the Norfolk coast, the UK village of Hemsby is being eaten away by the sea, bit by bit.

The village was first devastated by a December 2013 storm surge, which resulted in the destruction of seven homes. Now, the speed at which the cliff edge is receding has shocked locals and experts alike, with residents paying a hefty price for the lack of suitable sea defences. 

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. As the ground crumbled and foundations were swept away, entire structures slid down the incline onto the beach itself.

Fast forward to March 2023, when a storm struck the area with winds reaching 50mph and a high tide of more than 12 feet.

The tidal surge scooped sand from beneath several homes, leaving some just 1 metre (3.2ft) from the cliff’s edge and three homes had to be demolished, the BBC reported.

Sue, a Hemsby resident, was pictured surveying the resulting erosion, which left her back door just feet from the cliff edge. Her home was the first to be torn down following the storm, which she said was "soul destroying" to witness, according to the BBC. She spent the morning of the demolition frantically packing up her belongings before the wrecking crews arrived.

In December 2023 five more sea-front bungalows were torn down. High tides and strong winds in November had washed away several feet of dunes, undermining more of The Marrams and leaving homes at high risk.

According to Great Yarmouth Borough Council, a survey had deemed the homes "not structurally sound and... unsafe".

"It is just unbelievably sad and devastating," Lorna Bevan, a founder of Save Hemsby Coastline, told the BBC.

Unfortunately, while the council promised to rehouse the residents, they were unlikely to receive any compensation.

In January 2024, the Save Hemsby Coastline (SHC) campaign group handed 10 Downing Street a petition calling for action that had been signed by 17,000 people. The village lost 10 homes over the preceding 12 months and SHC warns that more than 120 homes will be threatened in the next 20 years. 

In February 2024, another report warned that more than 1000 homes and businesses were at risk from erosion along the Norfolk coast. Many could be lost within the next 80 years. 

Norfolk County Council has warned that the area has part of the "fastest eroding coastline in northwestern Europe" and time is running out to save it, according to North Norfolk News. 

Unfortunately for Hemsby and other villages like it along the Norfolk coast, help hasn't been forthcoming. 

In October 2023, Hemsby was found ineligible for government funding to build a 1.3km coastal defence scheme, which would cost around £20 million ($25m). This is despite tourism to the village contributing £80 million ($101m) to Norfolk's economy per year, according to SHC. Meanwhile, residents are resorting to rudimentary defences (pictured).

"The people of Hemsby are in danger of becoming environmental refugees unless something is done to save the village," SHC's treasurer told The Telegraph. "This is a terrifying situation we find ourselves in."

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.

A 2018 report on climate change and the marine environment in Corsica concluded that global warming was contributing to the area's erosion issues. It urged the town's authorities to address the perilous situation, sooner rather than later. 

While 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.

Three years of investigation led to the revelation in March 2023 that the cliffs, which reach almost 350 feet high in places, have two faults 262 feet up. 

So far, two homes have been evacuated and 25 more have been classified as fragile. 

In November 2023, the French Geological Survey found 35% of Corsica's rocky coast to be highly sensitive to coastal erosion, mainly around Bonifacio, Cap-Corse and Calvi.

A warmer world means fiercer and more frequent storms and ever more damaging sea swells 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, 34 homes have been lost to the waves.

Sea defences built in the 1950s have failed to protect the shoreline against the increasing impact of global warming. A catastrophic storm surge in 2013 left homes teetering on the edge of the Happisburgh'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. Experts estimate that the village will lose the equivalent of two football pitches over the next two decades. 

With Happisburgh's timber defences nearing the end of their life, the village's future looks very bleak indeed.

Landslips continue to threaten the historic village, which is home to an 18th-century lighthouse (pictured), a 15th-century church and the oldest set of fossilised human footprints outside of Africa, dating back at least 850,000 years.

Unfortunately, Happisburgh has been denied government funding to improve its sea defences. In February 2024, the building of new rock defences at neighbouring Cromer and Mundesley got underway, at a cost of £25 million ($32m). Sadly, Happisburgh won't benefit from them.

"Some places are deemed worthy of being defended, others are not," one resident told inews.co.uk. "We all pay the same taxes and yet there is no compensation, there is no help. It is not adaptation, it is abandonment."

The Californian shoreline is one of the world's worst 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 perched perilously close to the cliff edge. Residents had to be evacuated, with some properties deemed uninhabitable. 

The condemned buildings have since been demolished, including this cliffside apartment building, which was torn down in 2016. The two-story building had been vacant since its 12 units were red-tagged following a storm in 2010.

Many other structures in the city are still at risk. In 2018, an enormous fine of nearly £1.1 million ($1.45m) was issued to the owners of a clifftop apartment complex for failing to carry out adequate repairs to the bluff where the block sits.

The picturesque resort town of Soulac-sur-Mer is located on the swiftly eroding Aquitaine coast in south-west 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.

The building was evacuated in 2014 and subsequently condemned, following a succession of eight winter storms that caused rapid erosion to the coastline. 

In February of 2023, Le Signal was finally demolished, having lost the fight with Mother Nature. At the time of its ultimate destruction, the massive complex stood just 40 feet from the encroaching Atlantic. 

Alaska is warming faster than any other US state and twice as fast as the global average – rising to three times as fast in some seasons. As a result, 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 lies just a few miles from the Arctic Circle and 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.

Rising sea levels, flooding and erosion – all at least partially caused by climate change – have contributed to an alarming loss of ice and land.

In 2002, Shishmaref's residents voted to move the entire town. A new location was eventually selected, but the move was delayed on account of the cost, which was 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 built a sea wall to protect the town while they awaited relocation. However, the move never happened – partly due to cost and partly because Shishmaref's native Inupiat community doesn't want to lose its hunting grounds, traditions and identity.

Sadly, sooner or later the land on which Shishmaref stands will be below water, a victim of the warming that is already devastating 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.

A massive storm hit the coastline in June 2016. Towering waves whipped up by strong winds pounded the shore, smashing up beachfront homes and pulling a swimming pool into the ocean.

The tempest coincided with a severely high 'king tide' that magnified its effects. All in all, 164 feet of coastline vanished. 

Collaroy was subjected to several more major storms in 2020. Again, they coincided with abnormally high tides and created huge waves, washing away more of the beach. Luckily the majority of homes along the shoreline escaped serious damage.

In 2021, building began on a sea wall, pictured. It stands 23 feet high and runs for almost a mile along the shoreline.

However, not all Collaroy residents welcomed the wall and many campaigned for different measures. Concerned locals worried the wall would cause lasting damage to the beach and questioned why public space was being "destroyed" to save private property.

In January 2022, Collaroy was hit with a combination of large swells and high tides and residents were dismayed to witness large areas of the beach along the sea wall being washed away.

Coastal erosion in Hawaii is a perennial problem, but rising sea levels are making matters a whole lot more serious.

Honolulu has seen a 6-inch rise in its sea level since 2023, and 66,000 people across Hawaii are deemed regularly at risk from coastal flooding. A shocking 70% of the state's beaches are currently threatened by the encroaching 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.

Authorities have responded by allowing homeowners 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.

Hawaiian law prohibits the practice of 'shoreline armouring'. According to ProPublica, scientists claim that sea walls and other coastal defences such as sandbags are the leading cause of beach loss throughout the state. When waves hit the barriers, they pull sand from the shore and deposit it back into the ocean.

Despite this, a 2020 investigation revealed that almost 50 homeowners in Oahu alone had been granted permission to build new walls, keep illegally constructed walls and rebuild damaged ones over the preceding 20 years.

Back on the fast-disappearing coastline of Southern California, the bluffs of Isla Vista are wearing away at a rate of 20 inches per year, which doesn't sound like a lot, but when your home is hanging over the edge of a cliff, every inch counts.

In fact, the rate of damage puts the bluffs 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 on the 84 properties perched on the edge of the bluffs.

Cliffhanging properties that impinge on a 10-foot buffer zone face the threat of demolition unless they can be supported by reinforcements. 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. 

As recently as February 2024, record-breaking rainstorms caused earth to give way beneath the balcony of a student apartment. As the erosion continues, balconies – and even houses – will be forced to become smaller.

Since 1994, 13 students and others have fallen to their deaths from the cliffs – most recently in September 2023.

As Santa Barbara County's Fire Chief put it, the Isla Vista coastline is "just as dangerous as it is beautiful".

Another village on England's east coast that is enduring alarming erosion, Skipsea in East Yorkshire could be erased from the map in the not-so-distant future.

The sea is eating away at East Yorkshire's soft clay soils at a rate of almost 20 feet per year, with some areas losing as much as 49 feet in one year. In fact, it's the fastest eroding coastline in the whole of Europe.

Dr Eddie Dempsey, a geology professor at the University of Hull, told the Mirror that the erosion is nothing new, but it is getting "faster and faster" and is "a direct consequence of climate change".

During the past two decades, approximately half a mile of land has gone, according to local residents. Entire streets have disappeared along with the homes that once stood on them, and many more houses are at risk.

2023 was a bad year for Skipsea, with very high tides and strong winds contributing to several significant cliff collapses.

In early 2024, further storms ground away 30 feet of coastline in the space of just two weeks.

One local caravan park owner believes he has lost ten acres of land over the past 60 years, according to the Mirror.

Unfortunately, implementing a coastal defence system is deemed too costly and could also have a negative impact on marine ecosystems. 

Sadly, Skipsea's days appear to be numbered, and it is already being described as a 'ghost town' as residents flee to safety. 

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 beach was hit by a powerful nor'easter in 2021, followed by two tropical storms in 2022. The tempests caused massive harm to the beach and dunes. The first two storms alone affected more than 600 homes across the wider county and caused an estimated £30 million ($38m) in damages.

In August 2023, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began repairing storm damage on a 2.6-mile-long stretch of Vilano Beach that had previously benefited from a 'nourishment' project. The work involved dredging 1.3 million cubic yards of sand, which was used to rebuild the beach and dunes.

Local residents had previously clubbed together to construct a sea wall, but as the planet warms, these efforts may only have a temporary effect. 

Like Vilano Beach, Topsail Island in North Carolina is also vulnerable to nor'easters, as well as hurricanes and tropical storms. In November 2019, a nasty nor'easter washed away sand dunes and damaged beach homes.

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

Millions of dollars have been spent rebuilding the 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.

In March 2023, work began on multiple nourishment projects on North Topsail Beach, costing more than £14.2 million ($18m). 

The beach received around 1.7 million tonnes of sand to rebuild the beach in 2023 and a structure of large stones will be built soon to slow erosion. An additional 465,000 cubic yards of sand will be added to a 2.5-mile stretch of beach and should be completed by May 2024.

Work rebuilding areas of North Topsail is slowed down somewhat as construction on the beach must halt every year between May and November for turtle nesting season. 

The fastest-sinking city in the world, Jakarta is at risk of being the first megatropolis to be decimated by climate change. Constructed on a low-lying swampy delta intersected by 13 rivers, Jakarta experiences nightmarish flooding almost every year.

Almost half of the city sits below sea level and as the global level rises, the future prospects for the city are grim, to say the least. Experts have warned that large parts of the Indonesian capital, which is home to 10 million people, could be underwater by 2050.

In 2007, a storm blew into Jakarta causing 13-foot-high floodwaters. The flood killed 80 people, displaced an estimated 340,000 and caused hundreds of millions of pounds of damage. Fast forward to December 2019, when Jakarta was hit by its worst flood in a decade after 377 millimetres of rain fell on the city in one day.

The issues Jakarta faces are amplified by the aggressive extraction of groundwater for day-to-day use, which has led to increased subsidence. Alarmingly, the northern area of Jakarta is sinking by as much as 11 inches per year.

Authorities have attempted to head off the crisis with a number of solutions. One project already underway is the extension of an existing coastal wall. Scheduled to be completed in 2030, it will stretch 29 miles along the north coast. However, with the city sinking and the sea rising, the wall is only a temporary measure.

Another plan is for a 20-mile-long, 10,000-acre artificial island to be built offshore in Jakarta Bay. The giant sea wall will take the shape of a Garuda bird and is designed to block storm surges. The giant sea wall will also house apartment blocks and offices. It'll come at a price for what critics see as another temporary solution to an ongoing problem; estimates range from £17 billion to £47 billion ($22bn to $60bn). 

Most drastically, the government is planning to move the capital of Indonesia from Jakarta 800 miles away to Borneo. Named Nusantara, the city will stand on the site of a paper industry forest and is set to complete in 2045. The move is projected to cost £23.5 billion ($29.8bn).

Critics of the plan feel the government will be abandoning Jakarta residents to the floodwaters, while environmentalists claim the restoration of Indonesia's riverbanks and ancient mangrove forests would be of greater benefit to the city.

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

Made up of 120 islands, connected by 391 bridges that crisscross over 177 canals, Venice is sinking. Its beautiful buildings are built on a lagoon made of mud and loose clay, balanced upon inadequate foundations of vertical timber poles sunk into the mud. As a result, the city has dropped by 15cm over the past 100 years.

In November 2019, Venice suffered a high tide or 'acqua alta' of six feet, the second-highest on record and the worst since 1966. The waters flooded over 80% of the city, leaving its most famous landmarks such as Piazza San Marco (pictured) underwater.

The square's famous basilica – which stands just 65cm above sea level – was flooded by salty seawater, which damaged marble slabs, mosaics and ancient columns. Repair work cost the government £2.8 million ($3.6m).

Like their counterparts in Jakarta, the Venetian authorities hope that an ambitious flood defence project will save the city.

Building started on the MOSE megaproject in 2003. It was predicted to be finished in 2011, but the project was beset by jaw-dropping cost overruns and delays. Thankfully, the enormous system of sea barriers was finally completed in 2020 and was put to work straight away. It was predicted that MOSE would be raised around five times a year, every time the incoming tide hit 3.6 feet. In the first two years alone, MOSE was deployed 49 times. 

However, climate change experts predict Venice's sea level could rise by almost 2.5 feet by 2100. If that happens, MOSE would have to be up more often than it would be down.

New Orleans is confronting a similar predicament. Much of the Louisiana city lies six-feet below sea level and rests on marshy, loose soil that is prone to subsidence.

The city's overburdened municipal drainage system has further destabilised the land and rising sea levels coupled with the threat of worsening hurricanes and storm surges are only adding to its woes. 

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in August 2005, numerous levees that were supposed to protect the city failed, leaving 80% of the city underwater. Katrina damaged 70% of New Orleans' inhabited homes, causing £13.4 billion ($17bn) worth of damage in the Orleans Parish area and killing 971 people in Louisiana alone, according to a report published in the American Journal of Public Health. 

The devastation elicited a major response from the authorities. Since then, over 350 miles of floodwalls, levees and other coastal defences have been constructed at a cost of £15.4 billion ($19.5bn).

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. 

Sadly, in July 2019, The Big Easy was hit by Tropical Storm Barry, which again submerged swathes of the city.

In December 2023, workers broke ground on a £24.4 million ($31m) water management project designed to reduce flood damage by diverting stormwater into a 25-acre park with 'water detention areas'. 

Despite this, 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 swathes of the interior exposed to the elements.

This is by no means a new phenomenon in Wamberal, however, in the aftermath of the storms in 2016, a dark secret came to light. Asbestos was found scattered along the beach after erosion revealed building waste buried in the sand dunes. More of the hazardous material was discovered following the devastation in 2020, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. 

Since then, homes on the beach have been reinforced with sand, but that's a temporary measure for homeowners in a precarious position. The favoured long-term solution is a seawall, which is estimated to cost anywhere between £13 million and £20.6 million ($16.3m and $26.2m). However, residents would have to foot at least part of the bill and critics argue the wall would ruin the beach for recreation. 

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