Coastal flood and erosion risk under climate change: An overview of policies and legislation in Greece and Cyprus

Abstract

This short contribution provides a brief overview of the most relevant policies and legislation for the prevention and management of the coastal flood risk under climate change in Greece and Cyprus, following the ‘hierarchy of norms’: the most relevant International policy and legals instruments to which Greece and Cyprus, are Contracting Parties (CPs) are considered first, followed by the EU and National policies and legislation. Their review has shown that there are several challenges in the existing regulatory regimes, with the most important of which associated with the lack of consideration of the effect of coastline change (retreat/erosion) under climate change on the shoreline and beach legal demarcations.