Beach Loss Through Sea-Level Rise Will Affect Underserved Communities the Most – Sea Grant California

Looking down from the cliffs that border Blacks Beach near La Jolla, San Diego, California. (by Wayne S. Grazio CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 via Flickr).

A new study shows that equitable coastal access might become another victim of climate change – unless we plan proactively.

As the rising sea level slowly erodes California’s beaches, underserved communities are most affected by the loss, according to preliminary results in a new study funded by California Sea Grant and the California State University Council on Ocean Affairs, Science & Technology (COAST)…

How sea level rise contributes to billions in extra damage during hurricanes – Yale Climate Connections

Storm Surge (by Scott Pena CC BY 2.0 via Flickr)

Had Ian hit a century ago, when sea levels were about a foot lower, the storm probably would have caused billions less in storm surge damage, judging by the results from two studies looking at storm surge damage from 2012’s Hurricane Sandy in New York. Taken together, the study results suggest that rising seas left a huge portion of U.S. coastal infrastructure – much of it built during the 20th century – vulnerable to storm surges.

Small increases in storm surge can cause huge impacts…

An Alaskan Town Is Losing Ground—and a Way of Life – the New York Times

Kivalina, a village facing coastal erosion (by ShoreZone CC BY 2.0 via Flickr).

For years, Kivalina has been cited—like the Maldives, in the Indian Ocean, or the island nation of Tuvalu, in the Pacific—as an example of the existential threat posed to low-lying islands by climate change…
On a visit to the state in 2015, President Barack Obama flew over Kivalina and posted a photograph of the island on social media from the air. “There aren’t many other places in America that have to deal with questions of relocation right now,” Obama wrote, “but there will be.” He described what was happening in the village as “America’s wake-up call.”
Seven years later, Kivalina’s move is still mostly in the future, even though the island continues to lose ground…

Can Development Laws Elevate Us Out of Sea Level Rise?

Watch Hill, Rhode Island (by Patrick Franzis CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 via Flickr).

Watch Hill is an old neighborhood, where houses with names like Windridge, Waveland and Sea Swept began to take their positions on the ridge more than 160 years ago…
But Watch Hill’s most implacable foe has always been Mother Nature. In 1938, the Great Hurricane wiped fifty houses off Napatree Point, a finger of land curling into the sound. Today, the village is under the increasingly frequent assault of water coaxed by tidal force or blown in by Nor’easters over streets and parking lots, cutting off access to Napatree and giving the old house names a sardonic twist…