The World Governments Confront Sea-Level Rise
A colleague from the Bay Area writes: Craig, Few people noticed the approval process for the San Francisco Giants project to build housing on ocean-front property they own near AT&T Park. They have added this: “Another change is that the team has beefed up its sea-level-rise plan. The entire site will be raised 66 inches, and all buildings and infrastructure — streets and sidewalks — will sit on piles driven into bedrock.” Apparently, this is to manage the future rising tides. Area other construction projects doing similar things?
Funny you mention this. It was just two weeks ago that I wrote this post, explaining how San Francisco and Oakland have incurred huge costs associated with sea-level rise. For example, the Embarcadero is now routinely flooded at high tide. This whole thing is the subject of a law suit against the oil companies, in the cities’ effort to recover the costs of mitigating the damage.
In terms of construction projects, this whole thing has just begun. In fact, there is considerable debate about which is more affordable: seawalls or retreat to higher ground. It’s pretty clear that we’re in for a great deal of both. As I wrote here, it’s only a matter of time, probably a few decades, before places like Puerto Rico are no longer rebuilt after they are leveled by hurricanes, but rather surrendered as uninhabitable.
To answer your question: Japan, Australia, the UK, The Netherlands, and Denmark have aggressive seawall construction underway.
Craig,
You seem to have a strange understanding of how coastlines operate.
Coastlines are constantly changing, both advancing and retreating. This has nothing to do with rising sea levels, climate change etc.
The only problem is human occupation of coastal area’s. Humans like to build lasting structures without the risk of natural alterations to coastlines.
Heavy rigid buildings, different ocean front flora, sea walls etc all exacerbate coastline degradation.http://www.coastengsol.com.au/seawalls-blight-or-remedy/
In the UK, in some areas coastlines have retreated, while in others towns that were bustling ports 300 years ago are now 30 miles from the ocean !
The same is true on Australia. In South Eastern Australia, there are vast stretches of new beaches with hinterland that was underwater only 150 years ago, while on the same coast famous coastal land marks are disappearing due to erosion.
Most Caribbean and Pacific Island are actually growing in size, not decreasing.
Apocalyptic prophesies are very exciting, but in reality, simpler explanations are more reliable.