2024 Effects of Sea Level Rise

Rising sea level represents a significant threat to coastal ecosystems, communities, and infrastructure through land loss, altered habitats, and increased vulnerability to coastal storms, nuisance flooding, and wave actions such as wave run-up, wave forces, wave induced buoyancy, and erosion. Trends in increasing coastal sea level have been well documented and are expected to continue increasing, if not accelerate, in the coming decades (Sweet et al. 2022). While global consequences of SLR provide a Notice of Federal Funding Page 5 of 60 sobering assessment for possible coastal conditions in the future, significant variability in the rates of SLR and the impacts to coastal communities and ecosystems at the regional and local levels exists. The actual impact from changing sea levels in a region varies substantially as a function of shoreline geomorphology, ecosystem type, level of development, and human response (e.g., beach nourishment, setbacks) to changes. Damages and economic losses experienced by coastal communities could be reduced with improved knowledge on the potential extent and impacts of SLR and inundation, as well as options for mitigation and adaptation (Council on Climate Preparedness andResilience 2016, FEMA 2021). In recognition of the need to facilitate increased coastal resiliency and improve adaptation and mitigation capabilities, numerous informational reports and tools have been produced to provide guidance to scientists, managers, and communities. The ESLR Program aims to contribute to this information, delivering effective information to guide policy, land management decisions, and infrastructure design. Where appropriate, projects should build on existing information sources used by the end-user community before developing new outputs including tools and interactive applications.
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