Saint-Étienne-au-Mont -- Coastal Towns & Climate Change

This project details the futures of more than 1000 cities and towns across the globe as they fight to overcome all the grave socio-environmental challenges of the 21st century. As part of this process, we highlight the future of the French town of Saint-Étienne-au-Mont.

All across the world -- as sea-levels rise and ever-stronger storms erode away towns perched by the sea -- human populations might have to migrate at least a few miles inland to make new homes.

In this way, here in the Hauts-de-France region of France, former residents of the washed-away town of Équihen-Plage move to the town of St. Etienne-au-Mont located a few miles inland.

The Équihen-Plage Woodland Walkway

As part of their response to such a drastic climate-change challenge, the residents of both towns plant new woodlands that will hopefully keep the land intact and resistent to future storms. They also build a pathway of remembrance so they can walk to the sea and gaze upon the weird and unpredictable ways the rising sea is interacting with their coastal landscape.