Sea-level rise is already costing coastal communities

Sea-level rise is already costing coastal communities Today’s Video of the Day from Stanford University shows how sea-level rise has already become a major problem for some coastal communities in the United States.

In Annapolis, Maryland, there are now 60 days a year with high-tide flooding, which is occuring in the city’s downtown business district.

The researchers set out to investigate how flooding affects the economy in Annapolis by looking at parking meter receipts.

The study revealed that over 3,000 visitors are not returning to Anapolis due to flooding. With just three more inches of sea-level rise, that number will double. The sea level will not rise uniformly everywhere on Earth, and it will even drop slightly in some locations, such as the Arctic. Local factors include tectonic effects and subsidence of the land, tides, currents and storms. Sea level rises can affect human populations considerably in coastal and island regions. 

Widespread coastal flooding is expected with several degrees of warming sustained for millennia. Further effects are higher storm-surges and more dangerous tsunamis, displacement of populations, loss and degradation of agricultural land and damage in cities. Natural environments like marine ecosystems are also affected, with fish, birds and plants losing parts of their habitat. Sea-level rise is already costing coastal communities as shown above in the video show the meters that are being measured showing the extreme flooding and weather change. Therefore you can see the drastic affect it has had.

—

By Chrissy Sexton, Earth.com Staff Writer

Video Credit: Stanford University