Vulnerability to Inundation and Climate Change Impacts in California: Coastal Managers' Attitudes and Perceptions

2006 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 35-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne C. Moser ◽  
John Tribbia
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Coastal Areas ◽  
Federal Agencies ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

Coastal California has witnessed persistent sea-level rise (10-20 cm) along its southern and central open ocean coastal sections and in San Francisco Bay over the past century. This paper aims to understand the perceptions of local coastal managers in California of current inundation-related risks, the added risks from climate change, and vulnerability to the growing coastal problems. We also explore the extent to which coastal managers are beginning to think about and tackle these increasing management challenges. Survey results presented here suggest that inundation already creates critical management challenges in California, but other, non-inundation-related coastal problems also vie for managers' attention. Despite high awareness of global warming and moderately good understanding of potential impacts of climate change on coastal areas, currently pressing issues and limited staff time and resources constrain their ability to begin dealing with the growing risks from sea-level rise. The sobering conclusion is that California is inadequately preparing for the impacts of climate change on coastal areas at this time. Local government will need substantial support from state and federal agencies if the level of preparedness for climate change and other inundation-related risks is to be elevated in the future.

scholarly journals Creating a climate changed future with the sea level rise interactive- fiction game ‘Lagos2199’

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Keys ◽  
Matthew Keys
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Change Scenario ◽  
Scenario Development ◽  
Climate Change Education ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
Discrete Change

Story-based futures serve an important role in climate change scenario development. Stories are particularly useful in exploring sea level rise possibilities, since we know many coastal areas are specifically vulnerable to accelerating rises in sea level. This discrete change in coastline is different from most other climate change impacts, and offers a clear basis for scientifically-informed, future scenarios. We demonstrate this with a creative world-building effort set in Lagos, Nigeria, in the year 2199. Further, we employ story-based scenario development, and create a learning-oriented, web-based game that allows users to experience stories in an open-ended, text-based adventure style. This collaborative process blended scientific research, story-telling, and artistic co-creation to iteratively construct the game ‘Lagos2199’. The first use-case of Lagos2199 is documented herein, with corresponding survey results from the student users. This work has three core conclusions. First, the unique reality that sea level rise will literally re-draw maps can be leveraged as an entry-point for world-building and scenario development of the future. Second, such a scenario can be blended with storytelling, art, and music to create a multi-dimensional, immersive exploration of ecological and social change. Third, this kind of game experience can serve an important pedagogical role in climate change education. Providing the next generation of citizens with fluency in both climate change impacts and how society will interact with such impacts, is critical for providing adaptive capacity over the coming decades and centuries of accelerating global change.

Climate Change – Livelihood – Migration Nexus: A Case Study from Sundarbans, India

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malay Pramanik ◽  
Sylvia Szabo ◽  
Indrajit Pal ◽  
Parmeshwar Udmale
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Coastal Areas ◽  
Coastal Communities ◽  
Poor People ◽  
High Exposure ◽  
Coastal Belt ◽  
The Sundarbans ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

<p><strong>Abstract:</strong></p><p>Climate change is one of the most pressing challenges of the 21st century and is likely to increase migration of the marginal communities from the coastal areas throughout the world. It is projected that 200 million people worldwide will be climate refugees by 2050. Owing to high exposure and poor adaptive capacity, low-lying coastal areas and islands in developing countries are the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Therefore, it is imperative to understand how climate change is affecting the livelihoods, in turn, driving the migration in these regions.</p><p>The present study focuses on the Sundarbans region located along the coastal belt of West Bengal (India) as a part of Ganga-Brahmaputra mega delta. It is also a home of 4.7 million poor people, who earn below US$10 per month. The region is an exceedingly flat, low-lying, alluvial plain highly exposed to sea level rise, storm surge, tornedoes, cyclonic activity, riverbank erosion, salinization and subsequent mangrove depletion. Due to the climatic hazards, the basic livelihoods are at risk and their strategies towards livelihood collection remains largely unknown. Therefore, the present study provides insights into the nexus among climate stimuli, livelihood risks, and households’ strategies in the region, with special emphasize on climate change.</p><p>The study is based on field survey of 150 respondents representing migrant and non-migrant coastal communities from Gosaba, Basanti and Hingalganj block using structured questionnaires. More than 70% of respondents stated that livelihood risks mainly from climate change impacts as the major reason for inter-state migration, which is the main source of income supporting livelihood in the region. This environmental displacement in the Sundarbans region symbolizes the failure of adaptation to mitigate climate change induced sea level rise increasing the exposure to coastal flooding and storm surges, salinization, and erosion.  This study discusses potential mitigation strategies to combat the impacts of climate change on livelihoods of the coastal communities in the region.</p>

Influence of sea level rise on discounting, resource use and migration in small-island communities: an agent-based modelling approach

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 381-388 ◽  
Author(s):  
ADAM DOUGLAS HENRY ◽  
ANDREAS EGELUND CHRISTENSEN ◽  
REBECCA HOFMANN ◽  
IVO STEIMANIS ◽  
BJÖRN VOLLAN
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Resource Use ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Resource Conservation ◽  
Discount Rates ◽  
Time Discounting ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Island Communities

SUMMARYTime discounting – the degree to which individuals value current more than future resources – is an important component of natural resource conservation. As a response to climate change impacts in island communities, such as sea level rise, discounting the future can be a rational response due to increased stress on natural resources and uncertainty about whether future generations will have the same access to the same resources. By incorporating systematic responses of discount rates into models of resource conservation, realistic expectations of future human responses to climate change and associated resource stress may be developed. This paper illustrates the importance of time discounting through a theoretical agent-based model of resource use in island communities. A discount rate change can dramatically change projections about future migration and community-based conservation efforts. Our simulation results show that an increase in discount rates due to a credible information shock about future climate change impacts is likely to speed resource depletion. The negative impacts of climate change are therefore likely to be underestimated if changes in discount rates and emerging migration patterns are not taken into account.

Climate Change, Sea Level Rise and Protecting Displaced Coastal Communities: Possible Solutions

2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony George Puthucherril
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Coastal Zone Management ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Coastal Communities ◽  
Small Island ◽  
Small Island Developing States ◽  
Adaptation Measures ◽  
Technological Support

Climate change and sea level rise are realities that are upon us and which will profoundly impact the lives and basic rights of millions of coastal residents all over the world. As the law stands both at the international and at certain national levels, the basic human rights of the climate displaced are not adequately protected. This paper identifies two possible displacement scenarios, based on the continued availability/non-availability of land in the face of sea level rise and other climate change impacts; namely, the sinking Small Island Developing States phenomeon, where land disappears and there is no surplus land to support habitation, and all other cases, where the coastal land is battered severely but it can be re-utilized through appropriate adaptation measures or even if coastal frontage land disappears there is still land available inland. On this basis, the paper proposes three possible solutions: (1) bilateral or regional treaties to facilitate resettlement of the inhabitants of sinking Small Island Developing States, (2) appropriate coastal climate change adaptation implemented via integrated coastal zone management and (3) creation of new arrangements under the international climate change regime to provide financial assistance and technological support to respond to both situations. Even though the primary focus of this paper is on coastal communities in South Asia, the lessons that it offers are relevant to other coastal contexts as well.

Coastal flooding in the Balearic Islands during the 21st century caused by sea level rise and extreme events

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pau Luque Lozano ◽  
Lluís Gómez-Pujol ◽  
Marta Marcos ◽  
Alejandro Orfila
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Extreme Events ◽  
Storm Surges ◽  
Coastal Flooding ◽  
Coastal Areas ◽  
Balearic Islands ◽  
Mean Sea Level

<p>Sea-level rise induces a permanent loss of land with widespread ecological and economic impacts, most evident in urban and densely populated areas. The eventual coastline retreat combined with the action of waves and storm surges will end in more severe damages over coastal areas. These effects are expected to be particularly significant over islands, where coastal zones represent a relatively larger area vulnerable to marine hazards.</p><p>Managing coastal flood risk at regional scales requires a prioritization of resources and socioeconomic activities along the coast. Stakeholders, such as regional authorities, coastal managers and private companies, need tools that help to address the evaluation of coastal risks and criteria to support decision-makers to clarify priorities and critical sites. For this reason, the regional Government of the Balearic Islands (Spain) in association with the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Environment has launched the Plan for Climate Change Coastal Adaptation. This framework integrates two levels of analysis. The first one relates with the identification of critical areas affected by coastal flooding and erosion under mean sea-level rise scenarios and the quantification of the extent of flooding, including marine extreme events. The second level assesses the impacts on infrastructures and assets from a socioeconomic perspective due to these hazards.</p><p>In this context, this paper quantifies the effects of sea-level rise and marine extreme events caused by storm surges and waves along the coasts of the Balearic Islands (Western Mediterranean Sea) in terms of coastal flooding and potential erosion. Given the regional scale (~1500 km) of this study, the presented methodology adopts a compromise between accuracy, physical representativity and computational costs. We map the projected flooded coastal areas under two mean sea-level rise climate change scenarios, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5. To do so, we apply a corrected bathtub algorithm. Additionally, we compute the impact of extreme storm surges and waves using two 35-year hindcasts consistently forced by mean sea level pressure and surface winds from ERA-Interim reanalysis. Waves have been further propagated towards the nearshore to compute wave setup with higher accuracy. The 100-year return levels of joint storm surges and waves are used to map the spatial extent of flooding in more than 200 sandy beaches around the Balearic Islands by mid and late 21st century, using the hydrodynamical LISFLOOD-FP model and a high resolution (2 m) Digital Elevation Model.</p>

scholarly journals Interdisciplinary assessment of sea-level rise and climate change impacts on the lower Nile delta, Egypt

2015 ◽  
Vol 503-504 ◽  
pp. 279-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janez Sušnik ◽  
Lydia S. Vamvakeridou-Lyroudia ◽  
Niklas Baumert ◽  
Julia Kloos ◽  
Fabrice G. Renaud ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Nile Delta ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Interdisciplinary Assessment
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