Sea-Level Rise Adaptation And Planning: A Case Study From Tybee Island, Georgia

Details

• Personal Author:
  Bormann, Rachel ; Clause, Adam ; Depuy, Walker ; Ganguly, Jayanta ; Guy, Rachel ; Hallemeier, Jonathan ; Horton, Emily ; Mcmanus, Sarah ; Padgett-Vasquez, Steve ; Unks, Ryan
• NOAA Program & Office:
  OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research) ; Sea Grant
• Sea Grant Program:
  GAUS (Georgia Sea Grant)
• Description:
  One of the potential impacts of global climate change is rising sea levels. The latest Intergovernment​al Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment report models sea-level rise of 18 to 60 centimeters (cm) by 2099, based on various emissions scenarios (IPCC 2007). Studies that are more recent model even higher ranges with the inclusion of accelerated ice sheet melt, with mean estimates ranging from 71 to 130 cm and upper range estimates of 54 to 200+ cm(Horton 2008; Rahmstorf 2010; Vermeer & Rahmstorf 2009). Sea-level rise is of great concern to policy makers as approximately 10% of the world's population lives in coastal zones with elevations of ten meters or less (McGranahan, Balk, & Anderson 2007). While adaptation to sea-level rise will include work on many scales, including state and federal actions, in this paper we focus on adaptation at the community (local) level, recognizing that every locality has its own social, economic, physical, and ecological context that will be variably impacted by sea-level rise. The varying contexts and impacts entail that different adaptive strategies will be feasible and practical in different communities (Smit & Wandel 2006;Agrawal 2010). Within the domain of local adaptation to sea-level rise, we focus further on 1)active participation and 2) awareness of trade-offs as important components of successful adaptation processes.
• Sea Grant Document Number:
  GAUS-S-13-002
• Document Type:
  Technical Report
• Rights Information:
  Public Domain
• Compliance:
  Library
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:f5858f35f0be807946209a15e80187aaf46f99986f8cc2602ae47bbe099a027f
• Download URL:
  https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/42319/noaa_42319_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.25 MB ]