Data Basin provides online map-making and data-sharing utilities, allowing the user to discover and use shared spatial data & related information, create maps and do certain spatial analyses, use collaborative tools in groups, and publish datasets and maps in organized galleries.
The latest two issues, #64 & 65, of Tiempo: I like to pick these up at they are released so sorry about that delay. The Tiempo newsletter focuses on adaptation and development in the global south. The publication is a joint project of IIED and SEI.
The frequency and severity of coastal flooding throughout the world will increase rapidly and eventually double in frequency over the coming decades even with only moderate amounts of sea level rise, according to a new study released today in “Nature Scientific Reports.”
[Readers, note that this press release does not mention the cause of sea level rise, i.e., atmospheric carbon dioxide pollution, and it only mentions, at the very end, "climate adaptation." Nothing is stated about how sea level rise is expected to be 2 meters (over 6 feet) by 2100.]
This increase in flooding will be greatest and most damaging in tropical regions, impairing the economies of coastal cities and the habitability of low-lying Pacific island nations. Many of the world's largest populated low-lying deltas (such as the Ganges, Indus, Yangtze, Mekong and Irrawaddy Rivers), also fall in or near this affected tropical region.
The new report from scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the University of Hawaii shows that with just 10-20 cm (4-8 inches) of sea level rise expected no later than 2050, coastal flooding will more than double. This dramatic increase in coastal flooding results from rising sea levels combined with storm-driven flooding, including the effects of waves and storm surge.
The researchers combined sea level projections with wave, tide and storm surge models to estimate increases in coastal flooding around the globe. They found that regions with smaller variations in ocean water levels due to tides, waves and storm surge, common in the tropics, will experience the largest increases in flooding frequency.
“Although it is commonly understood that sea level rise will increase the frequency of coastal flooding, most of that previous scientific work has focused on analyzing tide gauges which capture extreme tides and storm surge, but not wave-driven water levels. Tide gauge data exist only for a limited number of locations around the world. Using models rather than individual tide gauges provides a comprehensive picture of the widespread vulnerability rather than at sparse points where observed data exist,” said lead author of the study, Sean Vitousek, who was a post-doctoral fellow at the USGS when he began this study. Vitousek is now a professor in the Department of Civil & Materials Engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
“The key findings are that areas with limited water-level variability, due to small tidal ranges (for example, the Tropics), and more limited ranges in storm water levels (such as the North American West Coast), will experience the largest increases in flooding frequency. In the Tropics, today’s 50-year water level event will occur every 5 years with just 10 cm of sea level rise,” said USGS geologist and coauthor, Patrick Barnard.
Most previous research has started with expected scenarios of sea level rise and attempted to find the flooding frequency increase. In this new study, the scientists took the opposite approach, finding the amount of sea level rise needed to double the frequency of flooding, while accounting for the uncertainty and year-to-year variability of storm patterns. One of the surprising findings was that it does not take much sea level rise to double the frequency of flooding (particularly in the Tropics). Using this analysis, Vitousek and his coauthors demonstrate that the 10 cm or less of sea level rise expected within the next few decades can more than double the frequency of coastal flooding for many locations across the globe. The areas with smaller increases in flood frequency include areas with very large tidal ranges and those along typical tropical storm paths.
“Most of the world's tropical atoll islands are on average only 1 to 2 meters above present sea level, and even in the high tropical islands such as Hawaii, Guam, American Samoa, U.S. Virgin Islands, Indonesia, and others, the majority of the population and critical infrastructure is located on a narrow coastal fringe at low elevations (1-2 m above present sea level) and thus susceptible to this increased flood frequency,” said USGS geologist and coauthor, Curt Storlazzi.
“These important findings will inform our climate adaptation efforts at all levels of government in Hawaii and other U.S. affiliated Pacific islands,” said coauthor Chip Fletcher, Associate Dean and Professor at the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology at the University of Hawaii.
The full report, “Doubling of coastal flooding frequency within decades due to sea-level rise,” is published online in Nature Science Reports.
Looks like the idiot-in-chief is having an impact on the content of news reporting. Which is shameful. The media whores have capitulated to the status-quo (again) while the unfolding climate apocalypse gets worse and worse.
Trump is going to exact DECADES of damage (at a minimum), and more then likely, he will be the idiot that committed the world to a unrecoverable, unsurvivable disaster (because it will take many, many years to unravel the damage he is releasing). And even more likely then not, there will be no unraveling the damage he is causing.
Therefore, the Trump presidency means the climate goose is cooked (over-done and not fit for consumption, ie., human survival as we know it is forever doomed).
These are not specious claims. The window of opportunity for mitigation / adaption efforts is being slammed tightly shut. Missing this once-in-human-history chance means the planet becomes unlivable with increasing disasters, crop losses and wet-bulb temperatures exceeding plant/animal/human survival.
Trump is a moron. His crimes against humanity cause me to claim that he should be held up as the criminal that he is and charged with reckless endangerment to the entire world.
Watch how Superman cleans up an oil spill! Superman for earth? The new Superman ‘Man of Steel’ (2013 / IMDB) is another film story about the destruction of environment, which threatens the survival of the human species. There is one race living on the planet Krypton and is about to use up the last energy resources of…
From last week Fort McMurray Flooding Emphasizes Tar Sands’ Threat to Mackenzie River Basin Desmog Blog – June 13, 2013: Record flooding in the heart of the Alberta tar sands dramatically illustrates their threat to Canada’s ‘Serengeti’, the Mackenzie River basin. Only days before this week’s flooding in Fort McMurray, a panel of international science…
PIK June 20, 2013: Day-to-day rainfall in India might become much more variable due to climate change – potentially putting millions of poor farmers and the country’s agricultural productivity at risk. The Indian monsoon is a complex system which is likely to change under future global warming. While it is in the very nature of…
South Asia will be among the regions hardest hit by climate change. Higher temperatures, more extreme weather, rising sea levels, increasing cyclonic activity in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea, as well as floods in the region’s complex river systems will complicate existing development and poverty reduction initiatives. Coupled with high population density…
June 20, 2013 1 Comment2013, Asia, Climate Refugees, Conflict, Extreme Weather, Migration, National SecurityBy Editor
The understanding of the puzzle about what is going on with our climate system and possible implications improved recently. Let’s begin with going back to 2006, here i quote an excerpt from the blog post “Revealed: Secrets of Abrupt Climate Shifts” via RealClimate, describing more robust understanding of the bipolar / see-saw mechanism of the…
By Joe Romm / Climate Progress: New research finds that “unusual changes in atmospheric jet stream circulation caused the exceptional surface melt of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) in summer 2012.” Prof. Jennifer Francis tells me these changes are consistent with those caused by warming-driven “Arctic Amplification.” And that means GrIS may melt faster than…
June 20, 2013 1 Comment2012, Arctic, Arctic Amplification, Atmosphere, Climate Science, Climatology, Cryosphere, Deglaciation, Greenland, Ice Melt, Jet Stream, Polar Amplification, RegionBy Editor