Cohen J E, Small C
Rockefeller University and Columbia Earth Institute and School of International and Public Affairs, New York, NY 10021-6399, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1998 Nov 24;95(24):14009-14. doi: 10.1073/pnas.95.24.14009.
The global distribution of the human population by elevation is quantified here. As of 1994, an estimated 1.88 x 10(9) people, or 33. 5% of the world's population, lived within 100 vertical meters of sea level, but only 15.6% of all inhabited land lies below 100 m elevation. The median person lived at an elevation of 194 m above sea level. Numbers of people decreased faster than exponentially with increasing elevation. The integrated population density (IPD, the number of people divided by the land area) within 100 vertical meters of sea level was significantly larger than that of any other range of elevations and represented far more people. A significant percentage of the low-elevation population lived at moderate population densities rather than at the highest densities of central large cities. Assessments of coastal hazards that focus only on large cities may substantially underestimate the number of people who could be affected.
本文对全球人口按海拔高度的分布情况进行了量化。截至1994年，估计有1.88×10⁹人，即世界人口的33.5%，生活在海平面垂直高度100米范围内，但所有有人居住的陆地中只有15.6%位于海拔100米以下。人口中位数居住在海拔海平面以上194米处。随着海拔升高，人口数量减少的速度快于指数下降。海平面垂直高度100米范围内的综合人口密度（IPD，人口数量除以土地面积）显著高于其他任何海拔范围，且代表的人口更多。很大一部分低海拔人口生活在中等人口密度地区，而非中心大城市的最高密度地区。仅关注大城市的沿海灾害评估可能会大幅低估可能受影响的人口数量。
