Residents in low-lying coastal areas were moved to community centers and schools on higher grounds.

In addition to an increase in flooding, sea-level rise could also result in the permanent flooding of low-lying small island states in the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean.

Their numbers might be small, but this is the event that foreshadows the likely mass displacement of people from coastal cities and low-lying regions as a result of rising sea levels.

Some 12% of Africa's urban population, and 18% of Asia's, live in low-lying coastal zones and may be exposed to extreme weather or floods.

Farmers frequently level off such gullies after harvesting in the fall, he said, and then replant the same low-lying areas year after year, leaving them susceptible to further erosion.