Kiribati , and the Maldives Islands , population growth has led to land reclamation and the building of coastal protection structures, such as seawalls. Land reclamation and coastal protection structures negatively impact coastal and marine ecosystems, including reefs and mangroves, which compromise the protection services that they deliver to island communities through wave energy attenuation and sediment supply  and may impact the long-term sustainable adaptive planning of islands . In addition, these construction activities disrupt natural coastal processes, thereby causing coastal erosion, which in turn increases the risk of flooding  . This becomes a vicious cycle, with more land reclamation necessary to accommodate growing populations. Land reclamation requires stabilisation by protection structures, which
IPCC
Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability
IPCC Report