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State Addresses Urgency to Prepare Roads, Water Systems for Rising Sea

Guidelines for how cities and local agencies should adapt roads, railways and water systems to accommodate rising seas were unanimously approved Wednesday by the state Coastal Commission.

The 230-page document sets a controversial benchmark by urging communities to prepare for the Pacific Ocean to rise 10 feet by 2100, a projection so far beyond current calculations that climate scientists haven’t yet determined the probability of it occurring.

Blueprint To Battle Bay Area Sea Level Rise Focuses On Natural Solutions

A blueprint outlining how San Francisco Bay communities should combat sea level rise was released early Thursday by ecosystem scientists and urban planners who envision a ring of man made reefs, rocky beaches and graded marshlands around the largest estuary on the Pacific coast. The carefully designed features, outlined in the 255-page San Francisco Bay Shoreline Adaptation Atlas, would in many cases replace or bury seawalls, rip rap, culverts and other crude fortifications that experts say won’t hold up as the climate warms and water rises.

Southern California’s Coastal Communities Could Lose 130 Feet Of Cliffs This Century As Sea Levels Rise

It’s not just beaches and sand that are disappearing as the ocean pushes inland. Sea level rise is also eating away at California’s coastal cliffs. The question is by how much, as Californians have heavily developed and continue to build along the edge of the Pacific. Scientists are now one step closer to projecting how these bluffs will fare this century — and the outlook is sobering. In Southern California, cliffs could recede more than 130 feet by the year 2100 if the sea keeps rising, according to a new study led by the U.S. Geological Survey.