Shoreline protection by the world’s coral reefs: Mapping the benefits to people, assets, and infrastructure

The important role of coral reefs in protecting people, economies and infrastructure is widely acknowledged. Coral reefs are highly effective at reducing wave energy and thereby diminishing the impact of both flooding and erosion in coastal areas. Understanding these benefits, and their spatial distribution, can play a critical role in driving efforts to protect or even restore coral reefs, with critical societal benefits. Simple, high-resolution models were used to generate a global map which suggests that 26 % of the coastline of the world’s coral reef nations receive some protection benefits, and that, over decadal periods some 5. 3 million people and 109 billion of GDP are protected by coral reefs. Separate maps show the values at the shore and plot the reefs providing those values. Differences exist between metrics (population, GDP and night-time lights as a metric for infrastructure) raising the importance of considering ecosystem service values with multiple metrics, including non-monetary values. Patterns of protection are highly heterogeneous, however many of the most important areas are adjacent to highly developed shores and many of these receive little or no management attention.