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In a few hundred years from now, or maybe more, do you think all coastal cities will be drowned from sea level rise? Or do you think man will create some sort of geoengineering to stop sea level rise, and uphold our cities? Such as giant man made lakes that hold all the excess water? Or some other solution? Or are our cities doomed long term?
A hundred years ago, most coastal urban areas were only a fraction of their present area, maybe a quarter or less. In that hundred years, nearly all the metro area has been built. In the next hundred years, if it is accepted that rising oceans are a risk, those cities can again be rebuilt, this time on higher ground, just as the normal process of urban renewal, which will take place anyway.
There are many cities that have been largely rebuilt over a shorter period than that: Berlin, Warsaw, Managua, New Orleans come to mind. Hiroshima's population is now four times what it was in WWII, all rebuilt in much less than the century of warning we have about rising oceans..
There are many cities of a million that did not exist at all acentury ago -- Las Vegas, Islamabad, Cancun, Astana, probably a few dozen of them.
all that is needed is for the great coastal cities, in their normal process of growth and renewal, to be directed onto higher ground.
jtur88 hit it over the head, it isn't like like rising sea levels are goign to flood a city in 2 days, Infrastructure could easily be rebuilt or changed, (pseudo-Venice everywhere) to compensate wit the waters rising 10 inches every 10 years (this might be an exaggeration) which honestly may sound bad but can easily be acquainted for.
I understand in the next few hundred years cities will have to gradually creep backwards onto higher ground. I'm talking about long term, maybe 500 years. Will cities just continually creep back further and further? Or eventually will inland cities begin to to the mass of the population? Or can there be a global engineering project to hault sea level rise in any way, such as redirecting water elsewhere?
Other countries will do exactly the same as we did in the Netherlands. They will build dykes, polders and bassins to protect their cities. It's already happening in cities like New Orleans. And at this moment we are already taking measures for lifting dykes and making dyke reinforcements. My nephew is manager of one of those projects.
Our government just launched the New Delta Project. The upcoming 20 years they will invest € 20 billion to lift and reinforce 1500 km of dykes in the Netherlands, mostly in the areas surrounding Rotterdam and the Rhine and Muse deltas.
This is a direct consequence of the rising of the sea level. They want our country to be ready for climate change by 2050.
If you're interested, this is the government programm. But you'd have to copy/paste into a translator
Other countries will do exactly the same as we did in the Netherlands. They will build dykes, polders and bassins to protect their cities. It's already happening in cities like New Orleans. And at this moment we are already taking measures for lifting dykes and making dyke reinforcements. My nephew is manager of one of those projects.
Our government just launched the New Delta Project. The upcoming 20 years they will invest € 20 billion to lift and reinforce 1500 km of dykes in the Netherlands, mostly in the areas surrounding Rotterdam and the Rhine and Muse deltas.
This is a direct consequence of the rising of the sea level. They want our country to be ready for climate change by 2050.
If you're interested, this is the government programm. But you'd have to copy/paste into a translator
Very interested. Won't there come a time when even all of these dyke projects won't be enough? Or will they keep building them higher and stronger for... forever? I would imagine eventually the city won't be able to sustain the much higher water?
Not sure where this "one hundred years from now" is coming from. There are already island nations that have had to be abandoned and evacuated. The Florida keys are getting swamped, Miami has issues, and most of south Florida will be next within the next 10 years. It only takes an inch or two of water to be a big problem. Build dykes all the way around southern Florida- not going to happen because Americans are in denial. If you don't believe me, just do some googling of these issues.
Very interested. Won't there come a time when even all of these dyke projects won't be enough? Or will they keep building them higher and stronger for... forever? I would imagine eventually the city won't be able to sustain the much higher water?
In theory that should be possible. We've been doing this for hundreds of years already and our highest dyke is only 11.5 meters. When the engineers calculate the possibilities of a storm that might occur that causes the waves to break- over the top of the dykes, they calculate that over a time span of 200 years. And the outcome/advice of how much higher a dyke should be made is usually within a meter (with some exceptions).
From what I've heard and read, the normal yearly increase of the sea level over the 20th century was 1.8 mm a year. Now that has changed to 3.3 mm a year. So historically speaking that is very fast, but it would still only be 33 cm over a hundred years. So I think we have a very long time ahead before a dyke would be so high that the costs wouldn't be worth saving a city.
And, there are also other more smart ways to fight the sea then only holding it back with dykes. Instead of holding back, you can also "let it in" in a controlled way of course. By making use of large basins that let the sea flow in, would also break the force of water and keep a nearby city safe.
Here the land is still rising due to post-glacial rebound, so we have experienced the opposite since the last Ice Age. Cities like Turku, Rauma and Porvoo have shifted organically closer to the sea, while Helsinki, Vaasa, and Tornio have been moved forcibly, and Ulvila became landlocked and the city changed to Pori. It's no big deal, you have to adapt.
With today's technology cities will have time to adapt to rising sea levels and protect them, and this is already been done.
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