Coordinated Science Support for Sea‐Level Data and Services in the United States

Abstract

Changing climate manifests in many ways, with rising seas being one of the most tangible consequences. Sea-level rise increases coastal flood risk to communities, damages infrastructure, raises groundwater, impacts freshwater supplies, exacerbates coastal erosion, and threatens ecosystems and biodiversity. Beyond these direct impacts, the effects of sea-level rise are also felt across many sectors of our society, including public health, emergency preparedness, insurance, finance, real estate, urban planning, infrastructure design, marine commerce, ecosystem restoration, marine resource management and, national security, among others. The coastal counties of the United States produce more than $9 trillion in goods and services annually and are home to over 127 million people (NOAA, 2021). Over the past century, sea level relative to land has risen around the coastlines of the United States by over 0.3 m (1 foot) on average, with increases driven by a combination of rising sea level and movement of land (Figure 1; e.g., Hamlington et al., 2020;Sweet et al., 2017). As a direct consequence, flooding within U.S. coastal communities has doubled in frequency since 2000 and now averages two to six events per year (Sweet al., 2020). Additional direct impacts are ongoing and worsening and an increase in the indirect impacts listed above is expected to quickly follow. In short, there is an urgent need to take action and begin planning for ongoing and worsening sea-level rise. This urgency was recently conveyed at the national level in the United States. Within hours of taking the Oath of Office, President Biden rejoined the Paris climate agreement and made climate change a national priority. With the ambitious plan for environmental justice, President Biden's climate plan seeks to "build

Global Snow- and Ice-Related Disaster Risk: A Review

“…The rapid cryosphere change accelerates the occurrence of snow-and ice-related disasters (SIRDs). Over the last 20 years, the ice volumes of the Greenland ice sheet and the Antarctic ice sheet have been decreasing and the risk of sea-level rise (SLR) is significantly increasing (Golledge et al 2019;Hofer et al 2020), which increases coastal flood risk to communities, damages infrastructure, raises groundwater, impacts freshwater supplies, exacerbates coastal erosion, and threatens ecosystems and biodiversity (Hamlington et al 2021). The accelerated melting of glaciers increases their instability, causing an increase of glacial-related disasters (Haeberli et al 2015;Shirzaei et al 2020;Frederikse et al 2020).…”

Through an Ice Sheet, Darkly

“…(2022), and van de Wal et al. (2022), as well as the ocean, atmosphere, and solid Earth (Hamlington et al., 2021; Kopp et al., 2019).…”

“…Similar questions face countless communities, stakeholders, and policy makers around the world as they grapple with the potential impacts of future sea-level rise on human settlements, coastal defenses, military installations, energy infrastructures, water resources, and innumerable other coastal investments (Cooley et al, 2022;Fox-Kemper et al, 2021;Oppenheimer et al, 2019). Planning for the risks and hazards associated with sea-level rise requires future projections based on the best possible science (Hamlington et al, 2021;Kopp et al, 2019). The geologic record documents that global sea level has risen and fallen dramatically over the course of Earth's history in relation to past global climate events, including the waxing and waning of the great continental ice sheets during the Pleistocene (Imbrie & Imbrie, 1979;Murray-Wallace & Woodroffe, 2017).…”

“…It will also be imperative to make best use of recent advances in geophysical modeling and remote sensing to anticipate relative sea-level rise from coastal land subsidence (Buzzanga et al, 2020;Shirzaei et al, 2021;Wöppelmann & Marcos, 2016). The most useful science to support risk management will therefore result from interdisciplinary sea-level researchers working to address open questions related to the evolution of the cryosphere in a warming world, as highlighted by Bamber et al (2022), Grinsted et al (2022), andvan de Wal et al (2022), as well as the ocean, atmosphere, and solid Earth (Hamlington et al, 2021;Kopp et al, 2019).…”

Evaluating Knowledge Gaps in Sea‐Level Rise Assessments From the United States

“…Assessment reports that project and plan for future SLR (Griggs et al, 2017;Hall et al, 2019;R. Horton et al, 2010;Kopp, Andrews, et al, 2019;NAHRIM, 2010;Sweet et al, 2022) for coastal communities and decision makers (Hamlington et al, 2020(Hamlington et al, , 2021 must be cognizant of the latest scientific advances. However, there are many social and economic challenges when it comes to properly planning to protect coastal communities and ecosystems from SLR, due to the deeply uncertain nature of future SLR (especially on longer time horizons) and multiple regional processes that influence sea level (Bongarts Lebbe et al, 2021;Hinkel et al, 2018).…”