Gainsborough could be underwater by 2050

The study, 'Flooded Future: Global vulnerability to sea level rise worse than previously thought', has been conducted by Climate Central, an independent organisation of leading scientists and journalists who research climate change and its impact on the public.

As part of the study an interactive map shows those areas most at threat.

The report states: "Sea level rise is one of the best known of climate change’s many dangers.

"As humanity pollutes the atmosphere with greenhouse gases, the planet warms.

"And as it does so, ice sheets and glaciers melt and warming sea water expands, increasing the volume of the world’s oceans.

"The consequences range from near-term increases in coastal flooding that can damage infrastructure and crops to the permanent displacement of coastal communities.

"Over the course of the 21st century, global sea levels are projected to rise between about two and seven feet, and possibly more.

"The key variables will be how much warming pollution humanity dumps into the atmosphere and how quickly the land-based ice sheets in Greenland and especially Antarctica destabilise.

"Based on sea level projections for 2050, land currently home to 300 million people will fall below the elevation of an average annual coastal flood.”