Adapting to Sea-level Rise: Where North Carolina Stands
Abstract
In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released their 4th assessment
report which provided indisputable evidence that the world climate is warming, leading
to changes in sea-level caused by two factors: melting land ice and thermal expansion
of the oceans. This report conservatively estimated between 0.18 and 0.59 meters of
global mean sea-level rise by 2100. Although sea level rise is a global issue, the
specific effects and magnitude felt by different coastal communities are unique. Sea-level
at a specific location, relative sea-level, is not influenced solely by GMSL but also
by factors such as variations in global land ice which effects the gravitational field
of the Earth, local vertical land movements such as sediment compaction and tectonics,
as well as changes in coastal currents and local water temperature. The National Oceanic
& Atmospheric Administration has identified North Carolina as highly vulnerable to
effects of SLR because of its “high wave exposure, low-relief coastal slope, and abundance
of barrier islands.” In addition, the Atlantic coast of the United States is experiencing
subsidence, a sinking of the Earth’s surface caused by either natural or human-induced
causes.
In 2010, the North Carolina Coastal Resources Commission’s Science Panel on Coastal
Hazards completed the North Carolina Sea-Level Rise Assessment Report, requested by
the Coastal Resources Commission to inform sea-level rise policy in the state. The
report included a recommendation that North Carolina use of a one meter of rise benchmark
for planning purposes. Almost two-and-a-half years later, North Carolina received
national and international ridicule for its legislative decision that prohibits factoring
a rate of sea-level rise into coastal planning until, at the earliest, July 1, 2016.
This masters project will examine how the current law passed despite the recommendation
of the Coastal Resources Commission’s Science Panel and will elucidate the future
courses of action that the state may execute after the release of a five-year follow-up
to the North Carolina Sea-Level Rise Assessment Report in March 2015.
Type
Master's projectPermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/8466Citation
Shipley, Krista (2014). Adapting to Sea-level Rise: Where North Carolina Stands. Master's project, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/8466.Collections
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