Sea levels are rising. Time to build …. floating cities?

WITH SEA LEVELS expected to rise at least 26 inches by the end of the century, due to human-driven climate change, to say that we have a problem is an understatement. By the middle of the next century, many of the world’s major cities will be flooded, and in some cases, entire island nations will be underwater. The people who live there will have to relocate. But to where?

With sea levels rising, is it time to contemplate floating cities?

On Wednesday, the United Nations Human Settlements Program, or UN Habitat, convened its first roundtable to discuss the possibility of floating cities as a solution to this problem. Held at its headquarters in New York City, on the banks of the East River, the location was fitting given that the room itself might be underwater within a century. The specific proposal that dozens of scientists, engineers, artists, and investors came to discuss was Oceanix City, which aspires to create a scalable platform for the seafaring civilizations of tomorrow.

Read the Wired story by Daniel Oberhaus - “Sea levels are rising. Time to build …. floating cities?”

Venice is flooded, but other cities are in much greater danger

Venice has flooded. But while worry about the worst floods in a decade and warnings about the impacts of climate change and sea level rise dominate most of the media coverage, there’s a more complex story to be told.

Piazza San Marco during Venice’s acqua alta (flooding).

In Venice, floods are a feature, not a bug. The city was founded by people fleeing the Huns. They were safe in the lagoon (a word borrowed from Venetian), where horses and armoured men could not advance: the soggy ground would slow the enemy, the tide would wash them out.

Halfway between land and sea, trade is the only way to make a living. And so Venetians became successful merchants and built a magnificent city, with dazzling palaces and splendid churches filled with delightful works of art.

Read the report from The Conversation by the Professor of Economics from the  University of Sussex, Richard Tol - "Venice is flooded, but other cities are in much greater danger.”

Piloting aviation industry through a changing climate

There’s something rather unsettling about eerie pictures of flooded airport runways, and it’s not just the submerged jet bridges. Such photos capture the type of disruptive scenes that could become more common in the future, as the effects of climate change continue to ramp up.

Flying into a changing climate.

New attention to the issue shows that airports and airlines around the world will be affected by climate change in various ways. Consider this past summer’s spate of heat-related groundings in Phoenix, when 120 degree-air temperatures spurred a single carrier to cancel more than 40 flights out of the city. A recent study by scientists at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, at Columbia University, anticipates more troubles along those lines in coming years).

“There are a number of potential climate change impacts on aviation operations,” said Perry Flint, a spokesperson for the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Impacts range from “reducing the take-off performance of aircraft, to increased storminess – meaning flights have to route around weather more frequently,” he said.

Read the Yale Climate Connections story by Daisy Simmons - “Piloting aviation industry through a changing climate.”

Yes. Your streets are flooding more

Destiney Bell’s yard is flooded, and this isn’t the first time. Most storms turn Bell’s lawn into a lake, transforming her house on a busy New Orleans corner into an island of inconvenience. A half hour of heavy rain means that she wades through half a foot of water just to leave her house. Her roommate, a doctor, often worries that she won’t be able to get out of their flooded driveway and to get to work.

Flooding has become a common sight
 in New Orleans during heavy rains.

Bell also keeps an eye on the kids around the school bus stop on her street. “Whatever trash or debris is in the street is getting flooded up into our yard,” she said. “I’m constantly watching to make sure they’re all OK, because with all that water, you have no idea what’s going to happen.”

This story has echoes across New Orleans. Throughout this summer, major rain storms have hit the city. On July 22, one such storm dumped over 4 inches in an hour and left parts of the city in disarray. A foot of water poured into the lobby of the movie theater on Broad Street, and a foot and half inundated Louisiana State University’s dental school. Cars across the city were dragged into the floodwaters. Another round of major flooding that began August 5 led Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards to declare a state of emergency.

Read the Yale Climate Connections story - “Yes. Your streets are flooding more.”