Sea Level Rise

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Sea Level 101

Global warming has raised global sea level about 8 inches since 1880, and the rate of rise is accelerating. Rising seas dramatically increase the odds of damaging floods from storm surges. A Climate Central analysis finds that sea level rise from warming has already doubled the odds of “century” or worse floods over widespread areas of the U.S., and the problem is growing by the decade.These increases threaten an enormous amount of damage. Across the country, nearly 5 million people live in 2.6 million homes at less than 4 feet above high tide — a level lower than the century flood line for most locations analyzed. And compounding this risk, scientists expect roughly 2 to 5 more feet of sea level rise this century — a lot depending upon how much more heat-trapping pollution humanity puts into the sky.

A Major Expansion

On the 1-year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy, Climate Central released a new and improved interactive map for New York and New Jersey, with Florida and eight other states coming online shortly after, showing areas vulnerable to flooding from combined sea level rise, storm surge, and tides, or to permanent submergence by long-term sea level rise.

The new map incorporates the latest, high-resolution, high-accuracy lidar elevation data supplied by NOAA, displays points of interest, and contains layers displaying social vulnerability and population density. It provides the ability to search by location name or zip code.

Climate Central will launch the web tool for all U.S. coastal states on a state-by-state basis, starting in 2014.

Surging Seas Risk Finder

In addition to the new map, Surging Seas' recent expansion includes an interactive searchable data toolkit that shows populations, infrastructure, and assets exposed to coastal flooding aggravated by sea level rise.

The Risk Finder incorporates the latest, high-resolution, high-accuracy lidar elevation data supplied by NOAA and assesses exposure of over 100 infrastructure and other elements — from airports to road miles, from schools to hospitals to wastewater treatment plants — in order to allow users to explore vulnerability from zip code through city, county and state levels. It provides the ability to compare risk across areas, as well as the ability to analyze the likelihood of coastal flood and sea level threats occurring in the future by decade.