Adaptations of Coastal Cities to Global Warming, Sea Level Rise, Climate Change and Endemic Hazards

Author(s):  
Frederic R. Siegel
Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Weiwei Xie ◽  
Bo Tang ◽  
Qingmin Meng

Fast urbanization produces a large and growing population in coastal areas. However, the increasing rise in sea levels, one of the most impacts of global warming, makes coastal communities much more vulnerable to flooding than before. While most existing work focuses on understanding the large-scale impacts of sea-level rise, this paper investigates parcel-level property impacts, using a specific coastal city, Tampa, Florida, USA, as an empirical study. This research adopts a spatial-temporal analysis method to identify locations of flooded properties and their costs over a future period. A corrected sea-level rise model based on satellite altimeter data is first used to predict future global mean sea levels. Based on high-resolution LiDAR digital elevation data and property maps, properties to be flooded are identified to evaluate property damage cost. This empirical analysis provides deep understanding of potential flooding risks for individual properties with detailed spatial information, including residential, commercial, industrial, agriculture, and governmental buildings, at a fine spatial scale under three different levels of global warming. The flooded property maps not only help residents to choose location of their properties, but also enable local governments to prevent potential sea-level rising risks for better urban planning. Both spatial and temporal analyses can be easily applied by researchers or governments to other coastal cities for sea-level rise- and climate change-related urban planning and management.


Author(s):  
Nishi Srivastava

Climate change caused due to our careless activities towards our nature, ecosystem, and whole earth system. We are paying and will be paying in future for our irresponsible activities in past and present. Increased concentration of Green House Gases (GHG) has caused severe global warming which will cause melting of glacier and results in sea level rise. To avoid and reduce the intensity and severity of global warming and climate change, its mitigation is essential. In this chapter we have focused on various issues related with climate change and mitigation strategies.


Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (18) ◽  
pp. 2577
Author(s):  
Mateusz Ciski ◽  
Krzysztof Rząsa

Climate change resulting from global warming has an increasing impact on Earth. The resulting sea level rise is starting to be noticed in some regions today, and based on projections, could have severe consequences in the future. These consequences would primarily be felt by residents of coastal areas, but through the potential for irreparable damage to cultural heritage sites, could be significant for the general public. The primary aim of the research undertaken in this article was to assess the threat to cultural heritage objects on the case study area of Tri-City, Poland. A review of available elevation data sources for their potential use in analyses of sea level changes was required. The selection of the optimal data source for the cultural heritage threat analysis of historic sites was carried out. The analyses were conducted for three scenarios, using ArcGIS Pro 2.7 software. A series of maps were thus prepared to show the threats to specific historic sites for various global sea level rise scenarios. Even with the slightest rise in sea level, monuments could be permanently lost. The authors point out that a lack of action to stop climate change could result not only in economic but also cultural losses.


2021 ◽  
Vol 114 ◽  
pp. 01006
Author(s):  
Leonid Sorokin

The Race to Zero is the largest credible alliance aiming to reduce twice emissions by 2030, with the main goal of moving towards a carbon-zero economy by 2050. Zero emission technologies can reduce the greenhouse gas concentrations in Atmosphere that can help to slowdown the Global Warming but for making the Earth’s climate system more stable we need implement Negative emission technologies. Negative emission technologies can significantly reduce the greenhouse gas concentrations in Atmosphere that can getting down the global average temperature to the pre-industrial level and prevent Global Warming and future Sea Level Rise. The currently observed climatic changes cannot be completely explained by the increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Taking into account the impact of methane emissions, including the Polar Regions and the World Ocean, it will be possible to explain rapid changes in the Earth's climate. For getting the Earth’s climate system stable and predictable we need to reduce greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere and the global average temperature to the pre-industrial levels. If this aims cannot be achieved then Climate Change and associated with Global Warming future Sea Level Rise in the nearest future would be the most important Risk factors in the Global World and World Economy, that can provide the world massive losses and economic crisis.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
John W. Day ◽  
Joel D. Gunn ◽  
Joseph Robert Burger

The world is urbanizing most rapidly in tropical to sub-temperate areas and in coastal zones. Climate change along with other global change forcings will diminish the opportunities for sustainability of cities, especially in coastal areas in low-income countries. Climate forcings include global temperature and heatwave increases that are expanding the equatorial tropical belt, sea-level rise, an increase in the frequency of the most intense tropical cyclones, both increases and decreases in freshwater inputs to coastal zones, and increasingly severe extreme precipitation events, droughts, freshwater shortages, heat waves, and wildfires. Current climate impacts are already strongly influencing natural and human systems. Because of proximity to several key warming variables such as sea-level rise and increasing frequency and intensity of heatwaves, coastal cities are a leading indicator of what may occur worldwide. Climate change alone will diminish the sustainability and resilience of coastal cities, especially in the tropical-subtropical belt, but combined with other global changes, this suite of forcings represents an existential threat, especially for coastal cities. Urbanization has coincided with orders of magnitude increases in per capita GDP, energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, which in turn has led to unprecedented demand for natural resources and degradation of natural systems and more expensive infrastructure to sustain the flows of these resources. Most resources to fuel cities are extracted from ex-urban areas far away from their point of final use. The urban transition over the last 200 years is a hallmark of the Anthropocene coinciding with large surges in use of energy, principally fossil fuels, population, consumption and economic growth, and environmental impacts such as natural system degradation and climate change. Fossil energy enabled and underwrote Anthropocene origins and fueled the dramatic expansion of modern urban systems. It will be difficult for renewable energy and other non-fossil energy sources to ramp up fast enough to fuel further urban growth and maintenance and reverse climate change all the while minimizing further environmental degradation. Given these trajectories, the future sustainability of cities and urbanization trends, especially in threatened areas like coastal zones in low-income countries in the tropical to sub-tropical belt, will likely diminish. Adaptation to climate change may be limited and challenging to implement, especially for low-income countries.


2021 ◽  

This book is a comprehensive manual for decision-makers and policy leaders addressing the issues around human caused climate change, which threatens communities with increasing extreme weather events, sea level rise, and declining habitability of some regions due to desertification or inundation. The book looks at both mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions and global warming and adaption to changing conditions as the climate changes. It encourages the early adoption of climate change measures, showing that rapid decarbonisation and improved resilience can be achieved while maintaining prosperity. The book takes a sector-by-sector approach, starting with energy and includes cities, industry, natural resources, and agriculture, enabling practitioners to focus on actions relevant to their field. It uses case studies across a range of countries, and various industries, to illustrate the opportunities available. Blending technological insights with economics and policy, the book presents the tools decision-makers need to achieve rapid decarbonisation, whilst unlocking and maintaining productivity, profit, and growth.


Author(s):  
Nishi Srivastava

Climate change caused due to our careless activities towards our nature, ecosystem, and whole earth system. We are paying and will be paying in future for our irresponsible activities in past and present. Increased concentration of Green House Gases (GHG) has caused severe global warming which will cause melting of glacier and results in sea level rise. To avoid and reduce the intensity and severity of global warming and climate change, its mitigation is essential. In this chapter we have focused on various issues related with climate change and mitigation strategies.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-22
Author(s):  
Caleb Mensah Amos T. Kabo-bah Eric Mortey

The sea level is rising due to global warming in response, by and large, to anthropogenic activities. Coastal communities along the Gulf of Guinea are low lying which makes them more vulnerable to rising sea level. Due to the topography of the Gulf of Guinea, the coastal belt is a highly erosive sandy barrier system that is susceptible to flooding. In West Africa, highlyproductive ecosystem like mangroves, estuaries, and deltas, that form the vital socio-economic activities like trade, tourism, fisheries and industrial growth due to the oil and gas development are found in these coastal communities. Therefore, majority of the population in West Africa who live in these mega cities along the coast face possible threats. Thus, climate adaptation is the only option to address these future threats as reduction in the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other green house gases is not enough for now to prevent global warming which leads to sea level rise. Thus, this study seeks to investigate from other research works, how sea level rise has affected these coastal communities along the Gulf of Guinea and how the communities are adapting to these challenges to new ways of living. It concludes with a recommendation on a climate change based framework.


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