Extreme coastal flooding due to climate change could threaten assets up to $14.2 trillion worldwide and affect up to 287 million of the world’s population by 2100, according to a new study.

Australian researchers estimate that floods that occur once every 100 years could now occur once every 10 years in 2100, mainly as a result of sea-level rise.

In the U.S., the coasts of North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland are most at risk, the study found.

Other places will experience a larger increase in flood risk, including northwest Europe, Australia, New Zealand, China, India, Southeast Asia, southeast Africa and North America.

"A warming climate is driving sea level rise because water expands as it warms, and glaciers are melting. Climate change is also increasing the frequency of extreme seas which will further increase the risk of flooding," lead study author Ebru Kirezci, doctoral candidate at the University of Melbourne in Australia, said in a news release.

"What the data and our model is saying is that compared with now, what we see as a 1-in-100-year extreme flood event will be 10 times more frequent because of climate change."

But coastal defenses could be in place by that time, and researchers say ,"it is expected that adaptation and specifically hard protection will be widespread, hence these estimates need to be seen as illustrations of the scale of adaptation needed to offset risk." 

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