Sea-Level Rise for the Coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington

Sea-Level Rise for the Coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0309255945

Tide gauges show that global sea level has risen about 7 inches during the 20th century, and recent satellite data show that the rate of sea-level rise is accelerating. As Earth warms, sea levels are rising mainly because ocean water expands as it warms; and water from melting glaciers and ice sheets is flowing into the ocean. Sea-level rise poses enormous risks to the valuable infrastructure, development, and wetlands that line much of the 1,600 mile shoreline of California, Oregon, and Washington. As those states seek to incorporate projections of sea-level rise into coastal planning, they asked the National Research Council to make independent projections of sea-level rise along their coasts for the years 2030, 2050, and 2100, taking into account regional factors that affect sea level. Sea-Level Rise for the Coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington: Past, Present, and Future explains that sea level along the U.S. west coast is affected by a number of factors. These include: climate patterns such as the El Niño, effects from the melting of modern and ancient ice sheets, and geologic processes, such as plate tectonics. Regional projections for California, Oregon, and Washington show a sharp distinction at Cape Mendocino in northern California. South of that point, sea-level rise is expected to be very close to global projections. However, projections are lower north of Cape Mendocino because the land is being pushed upward as the ocean plate moves under the continental plate along the Cascadia Subduction Zone. However, an earthquake magnitude 8 or larger, which occurs in the region every few hundred to 1,000 years, would cause the land to drop and sea level to suddenly rise.

The Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate

The Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate
Author: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 755
Release: 2022-04-30
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9781009157971

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the leading international body for assessing the science related to climate change. It provides policymakers with regular assessments of the scientific basis of human-induced climate change, its impacts and future risks, and options for adaptation and mitigation. This IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate is the most comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the observed and projected changes to the ocean and cryosphere and their associated impacts and risks, with a focus on resilience, risk management response options, and adaptation measures, considering both their potential and limitations. It brings together knowledge on physical and biogeochemical changes, the interplay with ecosystem changes, and the implications for human communities. It serves policymakers, decision makers, stakeholders, and all interested parties with unbiased, up-to-date, policy-relevant information. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

World Scientific Encyclopedia Of Climate Change: Case Studies Of Climate Risk, Action, And Opportunity (In 3 Volumes)

World Scientific Encyclopedia Of Climate Change: Case Studies Of Climate Risk, Action, And Opportunity (In 3 Volumes)
Author: Jan W Dash
Publisher: World Scientific
Total Pages: 1105
Release: 2021-03-18
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9811213933

The Climate Change Encyclopedia responds to the outstanding risk, survival, and ethical issue of our time, requiring action and providing opportunity. Primary-source expert authors write in a unique case-study structure that enables the Encyclopedia to be approachable, informational, and motivational for the public. The key focus areas are Climate Change and Finance, Economics, and Policy, with many other related climate categories included. The over 100 case studies provide realistic and interesting views of climate change, based on authors' published papers, reports, and books, plus climate-related activities of organizations, and selected topics. This inspiring work can enhance optimism and courage to act urgently and persistently on climate change, with foresight for a livable future.For more information on the list of contributors, please refer to https://www.worldscientific.com/page/encyclopedia-of-climate-change.Related Link(s)

Adapting to Sea Level Rise in the Coastal Zone

Adapting to Sea Level Rise in the Coastal Zone
Author: Chad J. McGuire
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 235
Release: 2013-03-26
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1466559802

For as long as humans have been inhabiting coastal areas and recording what occurs in their environments, coastal zones have been defined through dynamic interactions. And this is further underlined by a more recent development: observed sea level rise. In a thorough but not overly technical approach, Adapting to Sea Level Rise in the Coastal Zone: Law and Policy Considerations provides a legal-policy framework for facing the challenges of sea level rise. The book includes an analysis of sea level rise adaptation strategies that examines the legal impacts of coastal land use decisions based on the current interpretation of private property rights in relation to public control over those rights. The author discusses the science behind sea level rise and highlights policy complexities and options. He then presents an overview of related legalities, and bringing it all together, applies the principles offered in the book, concluding with strategies and solutions and a perspective on the future. If we accept the premise that sea level rise is occurring and will continue for the foreseeable future, then we must begin to consider policy responses to this risk in coastal regions. Part of any pragmatic policy response must include a review of the options available to public institutions when developing and implementing rational adaptation policies. This book offers practical legal/policy approaches to sea level rise adaptation that promotes sound planning in the face of climate change and rising seas.

A New Coast

A New Coast
Author: Jeffrey Peterson
Publisher: Island Press
Total Pages: 405
Release: 2019-11-26
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1642830127

“This is a timely book... [It] should be mandatory reading..." — Minnesota Star Tribune More severe storms and rising seas will inexorably push the American coastline inland with profound impact on communities, infrastructure, and natural systems. In A New Coast, Jeffrey Peterson draws a comprehensive picture of how storms and rising seas will change the coast. Peterson offers a clear-eyed assessment of how governments can work with the private sector and citizens to be better prepared for the coming coastal inundation. Drawing on four decades of experience at the Environmental Protection Agency and the United States Senate, Peterson presents the science behind predictions for coastal impacts. He explains how current policies fall short of what is needed to effectively prepare for these changes and how the Trump Administration has significantly weakened these efforts. While describing how and why the current policies exist, he builds a strong case for a bold, new approach, tackling difficult topics including: how to revise flood insurance and disaster assistance programs; when to step back from the coast rather than build protection structures; how to steer new development away from at-risk areas; and how to finance the transition to a new coast. Key challenges, including how to protect critical infrastructure, ecosystems, and disadvantaged populations, are examined. Ultimately, Peterson offers hope in the form of a framework of new national policies and programs to support local and state governments. He calls for engagement from the private sector and local and national leaders in a “campaign for a new coast.” A New Coast is a compelling assessment of the dramatic changes that are coming to America’s coast. Peterson offers insights and strategies for policymakers, planners, and business leaders preparing for the intensifying impacts of climate change along the coast.

Sea Level Rise

Sea Level Rise
Author: Bruce Douglas
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 271
Release: 2000-10-05
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0080516793

Sea Level Rise, History and Consequences includes a special emphasis on the evidence for historical sea level change; case studies are used to demonstrate the resulting consequences. A CD-ROM is included which contain tide gauge data and trends of relative sea level from the Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level. The material on the CD-ROM is either in the form of text files, or web sites that can be opened by widely available web-browsers.Sea level is expected to rise as much as 60-100 centimeters over the next century due to greenhouse-induced global warming -- or at least that is what the some scientists predict. However, the concept of sea level is extremely complex, which makes the prediction of sea level rise anything but certain. The reviewers are in consensus in enthusiastically endorsing this comprehensive book and CD-ROM treatment. This book will be a comprehensive review of the subject using the data themselves (on CD-ROM) to illustrate the principles involved, rather than detailed mathematical treatments. The book should be readily accessible to upper division and first-year graduate students in the environmental sciences, geography, geology, and other interdisciplinary fields. Four pages (up to 16 pages) of color in the printed text.The book will have wide appeal. It will be read by geologists, geophysicists, climatologists, oceanographers, meteorologists, environmental scientists, geomorphologists, coastal engineers, and policy makers in all of these fields.

Review of the Draft Fourth National Climate Assessment

Review of the Draft Fourth National Climate Assessment
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 207
Release: 2018-06-18
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0309471699

Climate change poses many challenges that affect society and the natural world. With these challenges, however, come opportunities to respond. By taking steps to adapt to and mitigate climate change, the risks to society and the impacts of continued climate change can be lessened. The National Climate Assessment, coordinated by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, is a mandated report intended to inform response decisions. Required to be developed every four years, these reports provide the most comprehensive and up-to-date evaluation of climate change impacts available for the United States, making them a unique and important climate change document. The draft Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) report reviewed here addresses a wide range of topics of high importance to the United States and society more broadly, extending from human health and community well-being, to the built environment, to businesses and economies, to ecosystems and natural resources. This report evaluates the draft NCA4 to determine if it meets the requirements of the federal mandate, whether it provides accurate information grounded in the scientific literature, and whether it effectively communicates climate science, impacts, and responses for general audiences including the public, decision makers, and other stakeholders.

Physical Geology

Physical Geology
Author: Steven Earle
Publisher:
Total Pages: 628
Release: 2016-08-12
Genre:
ISBN: 9781537068824

This is a discount Black and white version. Some images may be unclear, please see BCCampus website for the digital version.This book was born out of a 2014 meeting of earth science educators representing most of the universities and colleges in British Columbia, and nurtured by a widely shared frustration that many students are not thriving in courses because textbooks have become too expensive for them to buy. But the real inspiration comes from a fascination for the spectacular geology of western Canada and the many decades that the author spent exploring this region along with colleagues, students, family, and friends. My goal has been to provide an accessible and comprehensive guide to the important topics of geology, richly illustrated with examples from western Canada. Although this text is intended to complement a typical first-year course in physical geology, its contents could be applied to numerous other related courses.

The Impact of Climate Change on Regional Systems

The Impact of Climate Change on Regional Systems
Author: Joel B. Smith
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2007-01-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1847203124

The book works well as a reference for how one can examine potential climate change impacts in a subnational area. A clear strength of the work lies in the unifying framework that the climate, population, and, to a somewhat lesser degree, urbanization scenarios provide. Collectively, these appear to bracket a wide range of possible drives that will shape climate change impacts. The overall analysis takes a refreshing approach in that it does not try to fit all these elements and the subsystem impact assessments into one grand integrated model, but rather develops the assessments from a common base while allowing each to follow its own logic and scale. . . it provides a welcome overview of how one can conduct a multisystem, multisector climate impact assessment that combines natural, engineering, and social sciences in a rigorous format. Kris Wernstedt, Journal of Regional Science Climate scientists have determined that recent global temperature increases are due in large part to increased greenhouse gas emissions from human activities. Even if mitigation of these gases begins immediately, there is every reason to believe that climate change will continue to occur. Every region in the world ought to forecast, as the contributors do in this study of California (a region of broad variation and high population), how it will be affected by climate change and how it might best adapt. Models are used to estimate potential physical and biological impacts, efficient adaptations, and residual damages from climate change. The contributors cover a broad array of climate change impacts on affected market sectors (including water supply, agriculture, coastal resources, timber, and energy demand) as well as ecosystems and biodiversity. An integrated hydrologic-agriculture model is developed to explore how the region would adapt to changes in water flows. Interactions between climate impacts and population and economic growth, urbanization, and technological change are also explored. For example, the study examines how both climate change and projected land development affect the region s terrestrial ecosystems and biodiversity. The level of geographical detail, along with the broad applicability of the modeling, methodology, and conclusions, make this a unique and valuable reference for environmental economists, scientists, planners, and policymakers.