PERMAISURI, June 15 — The National Coastal Vulnerability Index (NCVI) introduced under the Second National Coastal Zone Physical Plan (RPP-2) revealed that 425 kilometres (km) of Malaysia’s coastline is affected by coastal erosion, Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Reezal Merican Naina Merican said.

In addition, the NCVI has categorised 35 coastal zones as having very high levels of vulnerability, and another 35 zones in the high level of vulnerability category, he said.

Rising sea levels, meanwhile, are expected to affect more than 20,000 hectares of coastal areas by 2030 and more than 123,000 hectares of saturated built-up areas are at risk of being hit by a tsunami.

"The NCVI is a method that shows the ecosystem diversity in a coastal zone and is an evaluation towards the level of exposure or vulnerability in a certain area. It also acts as an alert system on the risks that existed. In short, the NCVI sees the potential for disasters that can occur along the coast,” he said during his speech at the launch of the RPP-2 at Laman Seri Rhu Sepuluh here today.

The RRP-2, he added, has been approved by at the National Physical Planning Council Meeting chaired by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob in October 2021, replacing the first document prepared in 2012.

The document contains strategic plans on land use, environmental conservation and management along 3,800 km of coastline in Peninsular Malaysia and the Federal Territory of Labuan.

"The RPP-2 document also takes into consideration geohazards like coastal erosion, tsunamis, and rises in sea level that affects residential areas and municipalities along the country's coastline," he said, adding that the RPP-2 produced by PlanMalaysia also involved 45 local authorities that manage the coastline.

Reezal Merican expressed optimism in PlanMalaysia’s success in producing the document that can be extended to produce an Asean Coastal Zone Planning Framework as almost all Asean countries have coastlines, especially Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and Brunei. — Bernama