Population Dynamics in Coastal Zones: Environmental Changes and Adaptation in Brazilian Coast

The Fourth Assessment Report published in 2007 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has emerged as a landmark in the discussion of climate change, by emphasizing the importance of understanding the past as key to predicting the future. The scenarios of global average temperature rise cause the melting of glaciers and thus the sea level elevation, indicated on the report, and shows important consequences for population and environmental dynamics of coastal zones around the world. This paper presents a discussion about the possible risks and effects of global environmental change on the components of population dynamics, such as the spatial redistribution of the population and it seeks to analyze how do population dynamics and its characteristics influences the response capacity and the vulnerability of groups exposed to environmental hazards, also in terms of adaptation. In this case, the age composition of the population and family structure is an important aspect to be considered as significant assets of social groups, and also the spatial population redistribution due to the migration process. The example of Brazilian coastal zone will be used to shows the complexity of the effects of global environmental change on coastal zones.