Preparing for the flood: Visualizations help communities plan for sea-level rise

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/2012/02/19/preparing-for-the-flood-visualizations-help-communities-plan-for-sea-level-rise/

[font face=Times,Times New Roman,Serif]Media Release | Feb. 19, 2012

[font size=5]Preparing for the flood: Visualizations help communities plan for sea-level rise[/font]

[font size=3]Researchers at the University of British Columbia have produced computer visualizations of rising sea levels in a low-lying coastal municipality, illustrating ways to adapt to climate change impacts such as flooding and storms surges.

The researchers are working with a municipality south of Vancouver, Canada, that is surrounded by water on three sides and is expecting the sea-level to rise by 1.2 metres by 2100 – a change that would affect a number of waterfront homes, inland suburban developments, roads and farmland.

Considerable infrastructure has been built below current and projected high water levels, and could be inundated in the event of a dike breach. The images produced show how different adaptation strategies that could be implemented in the municipality and are being used to help make decisions about how to best prepare for the future.

“To me, the visualizations are the only way that you can tell the complete story of climate change and its impacts in a low-lying coastal community,” says David Flanders, a UBC research scientist with the Collaborative for Advanced Landscape Planning (CALP), who will present this research at the 2012 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Vancouver on Sunday. “In other words, seeing really is believing in this case.”

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(Images available at link.)

[FirstLight]

1. by 2100...?

I think it is coming MUCH faster than they think... i love how they try to educate the public without 'scaring' them...just like the climate change folks have been using 2100 as a benchmark, and then having to re-calibrate everything when stuff happens much faster.
the feedback loop is already begun, less polar ice, less reflection, methane thaw... so it's better if we just assume those dates are arbitrary and read "within the next decade" when we see them.

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. Yes, the year 2100 is a magic year!

When I look at the model projections, and see the predicted temperature rise by 2100… and see that the curves show no sign of slowing down, my question is “And then what happens?”

Of course, one magical thing about 2100, is that most of us able to read graphs today will likely be dead by then.

[FirstLight]

3. or sooner...

i have been wondering if our lives will even look remotely 'normal' by 2015. it's hard toi hear my kids in elementary school talking about their ideas about how life will look for them in high school, because i wonder if they will even have that luxury...

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. Yeah, I think our lives will look relatively “normal” in 2015

I’m a little concerned about 2050 though…