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Brazilian coastal vulnerability to climate change181and estuaries are very susceptible to the effects offlooding and represent a risk to urban areas.The already detected areas under risk willbe magnified by rising sea levels and the increase infrequency and intensity of storms associated withan elevation in ocean temperature. These risks willbe most significant in urban areas and especially inlarge coastal cities. In general flooding presents agreater risk than coastal erosion. Areas susceptibleto flooding already have drainage problems, whichwill become more critical with a rise in sea levelwhich in turn leads to groundwater contaminationand the spread of diseases both through water asalso due to the proliferation of mosquitoes andother transmittting agents. The implementation ofappropriate actions by the various levels of governmentare difficult to make because of the uncertaintyof the timing and magnitude of climate changes, thelack of observations of long-term temporaloceanographic variables and the absence of a wellestablished observational network, the absence ofdetailed altimetric surveys required to model andidentify the areas at greatest risk as also the smalltime window of the administrative mandate of eachgovernment in relation to the time required for theclimate change to become effective. Nevertheless,the potential risk of erosion and flooding that willresult from the expected climate change issignificant. However, the situation in Brazil is lesscritical than in many countries in terms of themagnitude of potential impacts to the population dueto the reduced occupation of large parts of thecoastal area. Nevertheless, the establishment ofintegrated networks of continuous monitoring ofoceanographic and climatic variables as also of thegeomorphologic changes in response to coastalprocesses is crucial in order to build up convincingevidence of the direction and intensity of climaticoceanographicchanges which will give thejustifycation to formulate appropriate actions forcoastal management at the different levels ofgovernment.ReferencesAlbino, J., Girardi, G. & Nascimento, K. A. do.(2006) Espírito Santo. 2006. Pp. 227-264. In:Muehe, D. (Ed.). Erosão e progradação dolitoral brasileiro. Ministério do MeioAmbiente, Brasília, 475 p.Angulo, R. J. & Lessa, G. C. 1997. The Braziliansea-level curves: a critical review withemphasis on the curve from Paranaguá andCananéia region. Marine Geology, 140: 141-166.Angulo, R. J., Soares, C. R., Marone, E., Souza, M.C. de, Odreski, L. L. R. & Noernberg, M. A.2006. Paraná. Pp. 347-400. In: Muehe, D.(Ed.). Erosão e progradação do litoralbrasileiro. Ministério do Meio Ambiente,Brasília, 475 p.Araújo, T. C. M. de, Santos, R. C. de A. L., Seoane,J. C. S. & Manso, V. do A. V. 2006. Alagoas.Pp. 197-212. In: Muehe, D. (Ed.). Erosão eprogradação do litoral brasileiro. Ministériodo Meio Ambiente, Brasília, 475 p.Bird, E. 2008. Coastal Geomorphology, anintroduction. Wiley, Chichester.Bittencourt, A. C. S. P., Oliveira, M. B. de &Dominguez, J. M. L. 2006. Sergipe. Pp. 131-154. In: Muehe, D. (Ed.) Erosão e progradaçãodo litoral brasileiro. Ministério doMeio Ambiente, Brasília, 475 p.Bruun, P. 1962. Sea level rise as a cause of shore e-rosion. Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastaland Ocean Enginering, ASCE, 88, 117-130.Bruun, P. 1988. The Bruun rule of erosion by sealevelrise: a discussion on large-scale two- andthree - dimensional usages. Journal ofCoastal Research, 4(4): 627-648.Calliari, L., Speranski, N. & Boukareva, I., 1998.Stable focus of wave rays as a reason oflocal erosion at the southern Braziliancoast. Journal of Coastal Research, SI 26:19-23.Dominguez, J. M. L. 1989. Ontogeny of astrandplain - evolving concepts on theevolution on the Doce River beach ridge plain(east coast of Brazil). InternationalSymposium on Global Changes in SouthAmerica during the Quaternary: Past-Present-Future, Extended abstracts. Spec.Publ. 1: 235-240.Dominguez, J. M. L. 1995. Regional assessment ofshort and long term trends of coastal erosionin northeastern Brazil. 1995 LOICZ - Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone, SãoPaulo, 8-10.Dominguez, J. M. L. 2004. The coastal zone ofBrazil: an overview. Journal of CoastalResearch, SI 39, 16-20.Dominguez, J. M. L. 2007. As Costas do Brasil -proposição de uma nova tipologia. XICongresso da ABEQUA, Belém, 4-11 denovember 2007.Dominguez, J. M. L., Bittencourt, A. C. S. P. &Martin, L. 1983. O papel da deriva litorâneade sedimentos arenosos na construção dasplanícies costeiras associadas às desem-Pan-American Journal of Aquatic Sciences (2010), 5(2): 173-183