Densely populated coastal areas will become more vulnerable to the damaging effects of tropical cyclones, regardless of whether hurricane activity increases, suggests a Commentary online in Nature Geoscience this week. As sea levels rise, cities around the world could learn useful lessons from New Orleans following hurricane Katrina.

Torbj?rn T?rnqvist and Douglas Meffert suggest that preserving protective shorelines anで wetlands, limiting the growth of urban centres on low-elevation coasts, concentrating the inhabitants of seaside cities in the least threatened areas and rebuilding destroyed housing in a more resilient fashion could all contribute to enhanced safety at the oceans’ shores.