U.S. Coastal Communities Often Underestimate Sea Level Rise in Planning Documents

Smart Water Magazine has written an article covering a new study by researchers from Rowan University that found more than half of coastal communities in the U.S. underestimate the risk from sea level changes. They achieved this by comparing the estimates of sea level rise used by local guidance documents in 54 locations with the latest U.N. data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The authors found many communities’ documents underestimated the upper possibility of sea level rise, impacting future planning. A common trend, especially in the South, was that planning documents were prepared using only one estimate of sea level rise for the region, instead of creating plans for multiple scenarios. Read more at Smart Water Magazine.