Coastal councils are already adapting to rising seas

Sarah Boulter writes about
protecting our coasts.

The wild storms that lashed eastern Australia earlier this year damaged property and eroded beaches, causing millions of dollars' worth of damage. As sea levels rise, the impact of storms will threaten more and more homes, businesses and services along the coastline.

CSIRO projections suggest that seas may rise by as much 82cm by the end of the century. When added to high tides, and with the influence of winds and associated storms, this can mean inundation by waters as high as a couple of metres.

As a community, we have to start deciding what must be protected, and how and when; where we will let nature take its course; how and if we need to modify the way we live and work near the coast; and so on. Many of these decisions fall largely to local governments.

Read the piece on The Conversation by a Research Fellow from the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility at Griffith University, Sarah Boulter - “Coastal councils are already adapting to rising seas – we’ve built a website to help.”