Adaptation to climate change in small island settlements poses unique issues of access, cost, governance and cultural, historical, and ecological preservation. There is a need therefore to focus research efforts on these small coastal settlements in order to assist and support their communities to develop and implement adaptation. This article is an initial attempt to evaluate and categorise these issues for island settlements, based on case studies and general perspectives on adaptation. Six island settlement case studies are used from around the world: Cocos Islands (Australian territory); Shishmaref, USA; Broad Channel, USA; Samsø, Denmark; Ciutadella de Menorca, Spain; and Port Vila, Vanuatu. This article describes and assesses impacts, adaptations, and capacity within each of the six case studies, and outlines the relationship of the Sustainable Development Goals system to small coastal settlements in general.

小岛屿定居点对气候变化的适应带来了获取、成本、治理以及文化、历史和生态保护方面的独特问题。因此，有必要将研究工作重点放在这些小型沿海定居点上，以协助和支持他们的社区制定和实施适应措施。本文是基于案例研究和适应的一般观点，对岛屿定居点的这些问题进行评估和分类的初步尝试。使用来自世界各地的六个岛屿定居案例研究： 科科斯群岛（澳大利亚领土）；美国希什马夫；美国宽频道；丹麦萨姆瑟；Ciutadella de Menorca，西班牙；和瓦努阿图的维拉港。本文描述并评估了六个案例研究中每一个的影响、适应性和能力，