Vol. 17 No. 1 (2026): Regular Issue (In Progress)
Review Article

Assessing Coastal Heritage Vulnerability to Sea-Level Rise in the Mediterranean: Towards Usable Knowledge and Integrated Adaptation Frameworks

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Pablo Fraile Jurado
Universidad de Sevilla
María José Prados-Velasco
Departamento de Geografía Humana, Universidad de Sevilla, Spain
Eirini Marinou
Geosystems Hellas SA, Athens, Greece
Betty Charalampopoulou
Geosystems Hellas SA, Athens, Greece
Conceptual framework for the integrated assessment of coastal heritage vulnerability under climate change. The dia-gram illustrates the interaction between coastal science and modelling, heritage and archaeology, management and policy, and final users. The colour scale—from dark yellow to white—represents the relative frequency of document types identified in the literature, with darker shades indicating higher frequency.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.48088/ejg.p.fra.17.1.035.047
Categories

Published 2026-02-21

Keywords

  • Sea-level rise,
  • Coastal heritage,
  • Vulnerability assessment,
  • Mediterranean basin,
  • Integrated adaptation frameworks,
  • Geospatial modelling,
  • Archaeology,
  • Coastal erosioon,
  • Climate change risk,
  • Usable knowledge
    • ...More
    Less

How to Cite

Fraile Jurado, Pablo, María José Prados-Velasco, Eirini Marinou, and Betty Charalampopoulou. 2026. “Assessing Coastal Heritage Vulnerability to Sea-Level Rise in the Mediterranean: Towards Usable Knowledge and Integrated Adaptation Frameworks”. European Journal of Geography 17 (1):35-47. https://doi.org/10.48088/ejg.p.fra.17.1.035.047.

Copyright (c) 2026 Pablo Fraile Jurado, María José Prados-Velasco, Eirini Marinou , Betty Charalampopoulou

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Received 2025-11-22
Accepted 2026-02-15
Published 2026-02-21

Abstract

Mediterranean coasts have one of the world’s richest concentrations of cultural heritage, yet this legacy is increasingly threatened by sea-level rise (SLR), coastal erosion and storm impacts. Despite a growing number of local and thematic studies, regional syntheses remain scarce. This paper presents a semi-quantitative review of more than sixty peer-reviewed publications and institutional reports (2010–2024) addressing coastal heritage vulnerability in the Mediterranean. Drawing on a harmonised database, each study has been classified by country, heritage type, threat, temporal horizon and methodological approach, and evaluated through standardised severity (0–5) and risk (1–3) scales. Results reveal three interrelated dimensions of imbalance—geographical, methodological and temporal. Geographically, a pronounced north–south asymmetry persists: Italy, Spain and Greece concentrate more than half of all studies, while North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean remain under-represented. Methodologically, about 45% of works employ DEM-based geospatial modelling, 25% rely on field evidence, and only 10% address management or policy dimensions. Prospectively, most analyses project impacts to 2100 under high-emission scenarios, with more than 70% of assessed sites showing moderate-to-high vulnerability. Although comprehensive, the sample is not systematic, and geographic patterns partly reflect differences in research capacity rather than exposure. A critical weakness identified across the literature is the limited transfer of scientific results into usable frameworks for planners and heritage managers, underscoring the need for performance and usability assessment in future climate-adaptation research. Advancing this field requires standardised indicators, broader regional coverage, and stronger interdisciplinary integration between coastal science, archaeology and heritage management to inform effective adaptation strategies for safeguarding Mediterranean coastal heritage under accelerating climate change.

Highlights:

  • Research heavily concentrates in Italy, Spain, and Greece.
  • Dominance of geospatial modelling over management and policy.
  • Urgent need to transform scientific results into usable management tools.
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