Local U.S. Planners Are Lowballing Their Estimates of Coastal Flooding

"A study finds that more than half of American communities are basing their long-term preparations for coastal flooding on numbers that underestimate future sea level rise."

"Communities across the U.S. are underestimating future sea level rise, according to a study published in Earth’s Future, a journal from the American Geophysical Union. The study found that more than half of the 54 surveyed locations in the U.S. underestimate the upper end of future sea level rise, compared to regional projections from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

“Our goal was to understand how well scientific advances in understanding sea-level rise are being incorporated into the local assessment reports,” said lead author Andra Garner, assistant professor at Rowan University in New Jersey. ​The answer in the report? Not very well.  

“Everyone has the same kind of information, such as IPCC reports. But the information tends to be used in very different ways, resulting in different levels of preparation for future sea level rise,” she said."

Charlie Miller reports for Inside Climate News May 20, 2023.

Source: Inside Climate News, 05/22/2023