New Maps Show How Sea Level Rise Will Destroy Coastal Cities By 2050

A ccording to Climate Central, "In the decades ahead, sea-level rise could disrupt economies and trigger humanitarian crises around the world".

By 2050, #SeaLevelRise will push average annual coastal floods higher than land that is now home to 300 million people, according to a Climate Central study published today in @NatureComms Full report on the findings at: https://t.co/GHJR5jTRca #ClimateChange pic.twitter.com/r6llU7AEm3

— Climate Central (@ClimateCentral) October 29, 2019

Sea level rise is one of the best known of climate change’s many dangers. As humanity pollutes the atmosphere with greenhouse gases , the planet warms . As it does so, ice sheets and glaciers melt, and warming seawater expands , increasing the volume of the world’s oceans.

The consequences range from near-term increases in coastal flooding that can damage infrastructure and crops to the permanent displacement of coastal communities . Looking at human activities, sea levels could rise between 2 and 7 feet during the 21st century, or possibly even more. According to Climate Central,

"In the decades ahead, sea-level rise could disrupt economies and trigger humanitarian crises around the world".

Asian Countries at high risk

India and other Asian countries , including Bangladesh and Indonesia, may see a five to tenfold increase in the population living below the projected high tide line by the end of the century.

Indonesia is already experiencing the effects of increased floods the government recently announced plans to move the capital city from Jakarta to Borneo. Jakarta, which sits on the island Java, is the fastest sinking city in the world. According to the researchers,

"Even with low carbon emissions and stable Antarctic ice sheets, leading to optimistically low future sea levels, we find that the global impacts of sea-level rise and coastal flooding this century will likely be far greater than indicated by the most pessimistic past analyses".

Countries at High Risk of Sea-level Rise California

Alameda, Monterey, Santa Barbara, San Francisco, Santa Monica, Newport Beach, La Jolla, and San Diego are all high-risk zones in the state.

1,300 square miles of land lie less than 3 feet above the high tide line in California, Oregon, and Washington. Among the high-profile beach properties in the state are a mansion on Billionaire’s Beach in Malibu, California.

Florida

Miami, Pensacola, St. Petersburg, Fort Myers, Naples, Key West, Daytona Beach, Jacksonville, and Miami Beach are all high-risk zones in the state.

There are many pricey properties in Miami Beach, and among them, the most pricey ones are a 10-bedroom, 14-bathroom mansion on Indian Creek Island Road that recently got sold for $50 million.

Hawaii

Honolulu/Oahu, Mokuoloe/Oahu, Kahului/Maui, Kawaihoe/Hawaii, Hilo/Hawaii are all in high-risk zones in the state.

eBay billionaire “Pierre Omidyar” owns one of the expensive beachfront properties in the Kahala area in Honolulu.

Massachusetts

Boston, Cambridge, Quincy are all high risk areas. New Orleans is also estimated to be underwater. Though the areas are below water level, but not connected to the ocean, due to natural or built breaks.

Louisiana

In Louisiana, more than one million people live below 6 feet, including roughly a quarter-million that appear to lack levee protection.

Half of Louisiana’s land (out of 5631 square miles) is in 5 Parishes: Terrebonne, Cameron, Vermilion, Lafourche, and St. Mary, increasing to 6,791 square miles less than 10 ft above the tide line.

New Jersey

285 square miles of land lie less than 5 feet above the high tide line in New Jersey . 30% of the total property value sitting on land below 5 ft, falls within just Atlantic City, Ocean City, and Beach Haven.

New York

Manhattan, Battery, Hamptons, Montauk are all in high-risk areas. 120 square miles of land lie less than 6 feet above the high tide line in New York.

Texas

Corpus Christie, Houston, Rockport, Freeport, Galveston are at high risk. Harris and Cameron counties combine to make more than half of the 5-foot exposure, and the city of Houston makes up one quarter of this overall exposure.

Vietnam

Southern Vietnam could all disappear . More than 20 million people in Vietnam, almost one-quarter of the population, live on land that will be inundated.

Much of Ho Chi Minh City, the nation’s economic center, would disappear with it, The projections don’t account for future population growth or land lost to coastal erosion.

Mumbai

The sea-level rise projection for Mumbai seems to be "really scary".

India's financial capital Mumbai, one of the largest and most densely populated cities in the world, is at risk of being submerged by 2050. Much of the southern parts of Mumbai may sink at least below the projected high tide line.

"Built on what was a series of islands, the city's historic downtown core is particularly vulnerable"

It also published a series of maps showing parts of Mumbai as well as Bangkok and Shanghai submerged by 2050.

Detailed maps from U.S. Climate Central

Below are detailed maps from U.S. Climate Central, which shows accurate risk zone areas in the U.S. as well as detail on the disaster zones and locations. All maps are based on an extreme 10-foot water-level rise plus a high tide flood possibility to show how dangerous this situation could become.

Further loss of land to rising waters there, threatens to drive further social and political instability in the region, which could reignite armed conflict and increase the likelihood of terrorism. So this is far more than an environmental problem. It’s a humanitarian, security, and possibly military problem too.

It is difficult to extrapolate such projections and their impacts on more resource-constrained developing nations, though historically, large-scale migration events have posed serious challenges to political stability, driving conflict.

It's a caution that coastal communities worldwide must prepare themselves for much more difficult times in the future than what is anticipated if current trends of greenhouse gas emissions continue.