A severely impacted part of the Maldivian ecosystem is the coral reefs. Corals are damaged by the construction of resorts on the coasts of islands. Furthermore, corals continue to be destroyed as tourism booms due to the contamination from wastes and pollutants associated with running the resorts. As explained in the Historic Background section, the loss of corals will have a significant economic impact on Maldives. One of the main players in Maldives is tourism. A problem of foreign investment in tourism is the outflow of profits back to the country of origin. This accelerates the increasing polarization between the Maldivian elite, who work in cooperation with the foreign companies, and the poor outer islanders, who do not have the opportunity to work in the high-paying tourism sector. However, for tourism there is a perhaps more important long-term risk that the industry must address. This is the potiential damage and harm brought by climate change. The primary reason for tourist attraction to the Maldives is the country's unique and diverse ecosystem. Climate change has the potential to annihilate the ecosystem one step at a time, with effects already seen from sea-level rise and warming seas. However, the main issue the country faces is the widespread disregard of the seriousness of climate change. In interviews performed by a Maldivian doctoral student on various stakeholders in the tourism industry, almost all stakeholders considered other short-term risks as the more important issues. Some of these short-term issues include the reduction of tourist numbers due to global recession, waste disposal issues, shortages of skilled local labor etc. Also, many of these stakeholders believe that climate change is "still a theory" and that the environment will adjust and adapt to the changes eventually, so there is nothing to worry about. Regarding existing effects of climate change, such as coral bleaching and beach erosion, the stakeholders believed that they are caused by the poor management and poor environmental practices at tourist attractions. Finally, local tourist operators fear that the over-discussion of climate change will ultimately scare off potential tourists. Foreign tour companies will then divert these tourists to another similar destination, such as Thailand, causing unnecessary harm to the Maldivian economy.
The gradual sea-level rise will directly displace Maldivians who live on the shore. In fact, the coastal population of Maldives accounts for more than 60% of the country's population. Other than the potential impacts on the ecosystem due to rapid and uncontrolled coastal development, one pressing issue for these residents is the increasing hazard coming from the ocean, such as the overwash of currents onto the shore during monsoons and tropical storms. It is estimated that as global sea-level rises, the coastal population will have to be displaced to an area of higher elevation. The displacement process is already occurring now in the southern Laamu Atolls as farmland had become salinized to the point that farming is no longer possible. But however, based on current scenarios, in the short term these populations will have trouble getting refugee status internationally. This is because the government of Maldives is still capable of securing the safety of these displaced residents by moving them to an area of higher elevation. Therefore, the coastal population can only be internally displaced in the short term future.
For coastal infrastructure built to reduce and stop beach erosion, many of the existing infrastructure are inadequate and failing. Several anthropogenic factors contribute to a large part of this failure. First of all, the design and construction of successful infrastructure, such as the expensive Japanese-financed sea wall around the capital Male, cannot be accessed by locals due to economic and technical reasons. In order to cope with this shortcoming, many local builders reference case studies of similar infrastructure in other countries. The problem with this is that Maldives has unique nearshore and coastal processes that pertain to small reef islands. Hydrodynamic forces are way stronger around these reef islands. So sea walls and nearshore breakwaters that are constructed by referencing foreign examples and without research often fail quickly. In addition, poor construcional practices compound to this issue and infrastructure fails even more quickly. Sea walls and breakwaters are often constructed with a random mix of materials that are ready and present on the islands. This also accelerates the process of infrastructure failure as materials like concrete, cement sand bags (often with poor quality cement), and even wooden structures are often too weak to withstand the high hydrodynamic forces. Another potential issue that man-made infrastructure may bring is the unpredictability of sediment transfer. Because islands are dynamic landforms, sea currents transport sediment and sand from beaches of one side of an island to another part of the island. With the existence of sea walls and breakwaters, the ocean currents are disrupted. A couple of situations might occur. Firstly, sand and sediment is transported out of one side of the island, but fails to reach the target because of the disrupted current patterns. This results in permanent loss as the sediment and sand are not returned to the island (i.e. net sediment deficit). Net sediment deficit can also occur when the sediment and sand gets trapped underneath a sea wall. This affects the corals living around the sea wall and creates extra pressure on the sea wall. Finally, because of the dynamic nature of the Maldivian islands, infrastructure constructed on one end of an island will have effects on erosion patterns in the opposite end of the island.
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