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Study: 180 US cities face threat from rising seas
Source: Agencies |
February 18, 2011, Friday
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RISING seas spurred by climate change could threaten 180 United States coastal cities by 2100, a new study says, with Miami, New Orleans and Virginia Beach among those most severely affected.
Previous studies have looked at where rising waters might go by the end of this century, assuming various levels of sea level rise, but this latest research focused on municipalities in the contiguous 48 states with population of 50,000 or more.
Cities along the southern Atlantic coast and the Gulf of Mexico will likely be hardest hit if global sea levels rise, as projected, by about 1 meter by 2100, researchers said in the journal Climate Change Letters.
Sea level rise is expected to be one among the results of global warming because ice on land melts and flows toward the world's oceans.
Using data from the US Geological Survey, the scientists were able to calculate in detail how much land could be lost as seas rise, said study author Jeremy Weiss of the University of Arizona.
Rising coastal waters threaten an average of nine percent of the land in the 180 coastal cities in the study.
Miami in Florida, New Orleans in Louisiana, Tampa, also in Florida, and Virginia Beach, Virginia, could lose more than 10 percent of their land area by century's end, the study found. New York City, Washington DC and the San Francisco Bay area could face lesser impacts, according to the study.
The effects of higher seas can range from erosion to permanent inundation, and the severity of the damage depends in great measure on where the cities are, Weiss said by telephone on Wednesday.
Sea level rise is expected as a consequence of continuing climate change, which is spurred by human activities, including the burning of fossil fuels.
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has estimated global average temperature will rise by 2 degrees Celsius by 2100. However, Weiss and his colleagues put the warming at more like 4.4 degrees Celsius.
Previous studies have looked at where rising waters might go by the end of this century, assuming various levels of sea level rise, but this latest research focused on municipalities in the contiguous 48 states with population of 50,000 or more.
Cities along the southern Atlantic coast and the Gulf of Mexico will likely be hardest hit if global sea levels rise, as projected, by about 1 meter by 2100, researchers said in the journal Climate Change Letters.
Sea level rise is expected to be one among the results of global warming because ice on land melts and flows toward the world's oceans.
Using data from the US Geological Survey, the scientists were able to calculate in detail how much land could be lost as seas rise, said study author Jeremy Weiss of the University of Arizona.
Rising coastal waters threaten an average of nine percent of the land in the 180 coastal cities in the study.
Miami in Florida, New Orleans in Louisiana, Tampa, also in Florida, and Virginia Beach, Virginia, could lose more than 10 percent of their land area by century's end, the study found. New York City, Washington DC and the San Francisco Bay area could face lesser impacts, according to the study.
The effects of higher seas can range from erosion to permanent inundation, and the severity of the damage depends in great measure on where the cities are, Weiss said by telephone on Wednesday.
Sea level rise is expected as a consequence of continuing climate change, which is spurred by human activities, including the burning of fossil fuels.
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has estimated global average temperature will rise by 2 degrees Celsius by 2100. However, Weiss and his colleagues put the warming at more like 4.4 degrees Celsius.
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