Is Building Walls around Our Threatened Coastal Cities the Best Long-Term Solution to Extreme Events and Rising Sea Level?

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Gary Griggs
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Extreme Events ◽  
Coastal Cities ◽  
Building Walls ◽  
Rising Sea Level

scholarly journals Short-Term Sea Level Changes of the Upper Cretaceous Carbonates: Calibration between Palynomorphs Composition, Inorganic Geochemistry, and Stable Isotopes

Minerals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 1099
Author(s):  
Ahmed Mansour ◽  
Thomas Gentzis ◽  
Michael Wagreich ◽  
Sameh S. Tahoun ◽  
Ashraf M.T. Elewa
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
Upper Cretaceous ◽  
Freshwater Algae ◽  
Sea Level Changes ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Sea Level Oscillations ◽  
Rising Sea Level ◽  
Southern Tethys

Widespread deposition of pelagic-hemipelagic sediments provide an archive for the Late Cretaceous greenhouse that triggered sea level oscillations. Global distribution of dinoflagellate cysts (dinocysts) exhibited a comparable pattern to the eustatic sea level, and thus, considered reliable indicators for sea level and sequence stratigraphic reconstructions. Highly diverse assemblage of marine palynomorphs along with elemental proxies that relate to carbonates and siliciclastics and bulk carbonate δ13C and δ18O from the Upper Cretaceous Abu Roash A Member were used to reconstruct short-term sea level oscillations in the Abu Gharadig Basin, southern Tethys. Additionally, we investigated the relationship between various palynological, elemental, and isotope geochemistry parameters and their response to sea level changes and examined the link between these sea level changes and Late Cretaceous climate. This multiproxy approach revealed that a long-term sea-level rise, interrupted by minor short-term fall, was prevalent during the Coniacian-earliest Campanian in the southern Tethys, which allowed to divide the studied succession into four complete and two incomplete 3rd order transgressive-regressive sequences. Carbon and oxygen isotopes of bulk hemipelagic carbonates were calibrated with gonyaulacoids and freshwater algae (FWA)-pteridophyte spores and results showed that positive δ13Ccarb trends were consistent, in part, with excess gonyaulacoid dinocysts and reduced FWA-spores, reinforcing a rising sea level and vice versa. A reverse pattern was shown between the δ18Ocarb and gonyaulacoid dinocysts, where negative δ18Ocarb trends were slightly consistent with enhanced gonyaulacoid content, indicating a rising sea level and vice versa. However, stable isotope trends were not in agreement with palynological calibrations at some intervals. Therefore, the isotope records can be used as reliable indicators for reconstructing changes in long-term sea level rather than short-term oscillations.

scholarly journals Reply to Boyd et al.: Large long-term sea level projections do not mean giving up on coastal cities

2016 ◽  
Vol 113 (10) ◽  
pp. E1330-E1330
Author(s):  
Benjamin H. Strauss ◽  
Scott Kulp ◽  
Anders Levermann
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Coastal Cities

The Translation of Polder

2020 ◽  
pp. 221-242
Author(s):  
Simon Richter
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Urban Design ◽  
Social Resilience ◽  
Translation Process ◽  
World Languages ◽  
Coastal Cities ◽  
Close Analysis ◽  
Asian Cities

Polder is a Dutch word that occurs in many world languages. As sea level rises and coastal cities subside, the polder is a preferred way to protect land from flooding. Because polder combines infrastructure with governance and social resilience, the translation of polder involves more than finding a linguistic equivalent. Successful translation of polder as both a term and an approach to water management depends on the openness of the translation process to adaptations called for by the local language, culture, climate, and terrain. This chapter begins with cultural histories of the polder in The Netherlands and Indonesia and concludes with close analysis of the translation process as it played out in Water as Leverage for Asian Cities, a Dutch urban design initiative that took place in Semarang, Indonesia in 2018–2019.

scholarly journals A Holistic Framework for Evaluating Adaptation Approaches to Coastal Hazards and Sea Level Rise: A Case Study from Imperial Beach, California

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 1324
Author(s):  
David Revell ◽  
Phil King ◽  
Jeff Giliam ◽  
Juliano Calil ◽  
Sarah Jenkins ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Public Trust ◽  
Adaptation Strategy ◽  
Public Benefits ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Local Risk ◽  
Over Time

Sea level rise increases community risks from erosion, wave flooding, and tides. Current management typically protects existing development and infrastructure with coastal armoring. These practices ignore long-term impacts to public trust coastal recreation and natural ecosystems. This adaptation framework models physical responses to the public beach and private upland for each adaptation strategy over time, linking physical changes in widths to damages, economic costs, and benefits from beach recreation and nature using low-lying Imperial Beach, California, as a case study. Available coastal hazard models identified community vulnerabilities, and local risk communication engagement prioritized five adaptation approaches—armoring, nourishment, living shorelines, groins, and managed retreat. This framework innovates using replacement cost as a proxy for ecosystem services normally not valued and examines a managed retreat policy approach using a public buyout and rent-back option. Specific methods and economic values used in the analysis need more research and innovation, but the framework provides a scalable methodology to guide coastal adaptation planning everywhere. Case study results suggest that coastal armoring provides the least public benefits over time. Living shoreline approaches show greater public benefits, while managed retreat, implemented sooner, provides the best long-term adaptation strategy to protect community identity and public trust resources.

scholarly journals Inferring regional vertical crustal velocities from averaged relative sea level trends: A proof of concept

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Bâki Iz ◽  
C. K. Shum ◽  
C. Zhang ◽  
C. Y. Kuo
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Tide Gauge ◽  
Eastern Coast ◽  
Adjustment Process ◽  
Tide Gauge Records ◽  
Relative Sea Level ◽  
Isostatic Adjustment ◽  
Vertical Crustal Motion ◽  
Gps Time Series

AbstractThis study demonstrates that relative sea level trends calculated from long-term tide gauge records can be used to estimate relative vertical crustal velocities in a region with high accuracy. A comparison of the weighted averages of the relative sea level trends estimated at six tide gauge stations in two clusters along the Eastern coast of United States, in Florida and in Maryland, reveals a statistically significant regional vertical crustal motion of Maryland with respect to Florida with a subsidence rate of −1.15±0.15 mm/yr identified predominantly due to the ongoing glacial isostatic adjustment process. The estimate is a consilience value to validate vertical crustal velocities calculated from GPS time series as well as towards constraining predictive GIA models in these regions.

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