Category:Sea-Level Rise & Mitigation

- - - - - -

Sea-Level Rise & Mitigation

United States

Adaptation Action Planning

Florida

2013/2014

July 20, 2014 In Florida, fossil fuel energy co's have their way in a pro-fossil fueled legis and w/ the gov. Today we read the energy co's are officially against renewables, incl solar in the "Sunshine State", claiming to the PSC that energy 'savings' are bad (for them) and then there's the 'if they can't grow, they'll die' argument (so pay more, use more, pollute more, greenhouse more, sea rise more, not to worry, bigger better, more better.) What's wrong w/ this picture?

Scientists petition the governor

Southeast Florida Climate Compact

Adaptation action-ICLEI model

Resiliency against sea-level rise

NASA study of Southeast Florida Vulnerability to Sea-Level Rise

Florida and the Surging Seas, a Vulnerability Assessment

Miami in Deep

South Florida Faces Ominous Prospects from Rising Waters / NYT

South Florida Rising Seas - PBS

Rising Seas: South Florida, Inching toward Disaster

Florida - Impact of Sea Level Rise on Energy and Water

_ _ _ _

California

Sea Level Rise Vulnerability Study - City of Los Angeles

Over the next century, sea level rise in the Los Angeles (L.A.) region is expected to match global projections with an increase of 0.1 - 0.6 m (5 - 24 inches) from 2000 to 2050 and 0.4 - 1.7 m (17 - 66 inches) from 2000 to 2100. [2]

Los Angeles critical coastal infrastructure at the Port of Los Angeles (Port) is approximately 10 ft above sea level. Under current conditions, some of this infrastructure is vulnerable to flooding during high tide events and severe storms. This flooding is expected to worsen as sea level rise contributes to increased total water levels. The Port is among the busiest in the world, contributing more than $63 billion to the State of California, and more than $260 billion to the U.S. economy. More than 40% of all imports arriving in the U.S. comes through the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, where it is loaded onto trucks and trains for overland shipping (Port of Los Angeles 2012)... [3]

_ _ _ _

New York City

Post Superstorm Sandy, estimated $29 Billion plan sets stage for future [4] Mayor's Plan to Protect NYC A Stronger, More Resilient New York [5] Superstorm barrier for New York - June 4, 2014 13 Mile Long Levee at tip of Manhattan

In a settlement that could have far-reaching implications nationwide, New York’s largest utility is now responsible for preparing for a future of extreme weather, including the impacts of climate change. June 5, 2014 [6]

NY/NJ Sea Rise Assessment 2013

_ _ _ _

U.S.

Ways Cities are Preparing for Sea-Level Rise

"Global sea-level rise (SLR) trends provide valuable evidence in preparing for future environmental change" explains a 2012 US NOAA report which goes on to say aside from this report, there is currently no coordinated, interagency effort in the US to identify agreed upon global mean SLR estimates for the purpose of coastal planning, policy, and management. -- Scenarios/NOAA/Nov 2012

Soon after this acknowledgment of a systemic lack of coordinated, interagency planning, a follow-on assessment is issued by "twelve contributing authors" from "ten different federal and academic science institutions." NOAA/Dec 2012

"A new sea level rise scenarios report has been released by NOAA's Climate Program Office in collaboration with twelve contributing authors from ten different federal and academic science institutions. The report, produced in response to a request from the U.S. National Climate Assessment Development and Advisory Committee, provides a synthesis of the scientific literature on global sea level rise, and a set of four scenarios of future global sea level rise." Global Sea Level Rise Scenarios for the United States National Climate Assessment _ _ _ _

Global

US Gov initiates global climate change inter-agency coordination/risk assessment -- Global Change News and Updates

Earth Imaging -- The Antarctic: Big Melt Accelerates

_ _ _ _

Preparing for sea level rise

Resilience - Community - Hazard Mitigation: Integrating Best Practices into Planning ... With identification of risks inherent in the forces of nature, government acquires responsibilities to address those risks... Mitigation policies Disaster Preparedness/FEMA - PDF

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Against the Tide book by Cornelia Dean

[From Publishers Weekly]

An eloquent, forceful plea to save America's rapidly eroding beaches and coastline, this revelatory and disturbing report from the science editor of the New York Times is reminiscent of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring...

[Review] Castles built on sand are doomed, they say. But in our hunger for an ocean view from the living-room window, we keep building things we expect to last on beaches that never stay still. In Against the Tide, Cornelia Dean, science editor of The New York Times, outlines the global coastal management crisis and all the elaborate engineering methods developed to stave off erosion--revetments, sand-trapping devices, seawalls, groins and jetties, even artificial seaweed beds. In clear, journalistic style, she explains how all of these devices have failed to stop the inexorable march of the sea...

From the motels and T-shirt shops of beachless Florida "beach towns" to Los Angeles County, most of whose beaches are artificial, the story Dean tells is the same. People build on unstable landforms, then attempt to avoid the inevitable consequences through quick technological fixes: concrete seawalls, artificial reefs, sand-trapping steel groins, jetties, underground "dewatering" systems of pipes and pumps, etc. These techno-fixes may prolong the life of coastal buildings, but they usually accelerate erosion and environmental degradation...

_ _ _ _