Sea+Level+Rise

__Impacts__ The potential impacts of sea level rise, including flooding, are catastrophic. Towns could be devastated, and if that happened, disease could quickly spread. The recent floods in and around Coffs Harbour have affected areas which have never been flood affected before. These floods are a good reminder that places previously thought to be 'safe' can now be under threat of being flooded. Australia's major cities are all on the coast (except for Canberra) and all could get flooded in the future. It would not only destroy towns, it would spread diseases like those from the South East Asian Tsunami.  __Background Information __  From 1870 to 2007 the global average sea level rose by close to 20 cm. Ongoing warming of the oceans and melting of ice are expected to lead to continued sea-level rise of at least 18 to 79 cm this century. Sea levels rose at an average of 1.7 mm per year during the 20th century, accelerating to 3.4 mm per year from 1993–2007. Figure 11 shows that sea level rises above the 1990 level of 5–35 cm by 2030 and 10–80 cm by 2070. We really have very limited understanding of how ice-sheets in Greenland and the Antarctic will respond to rising temperatures. It is feared that global warming and climate change may result in the melting the icecaps at an alarming rate. So a rise of more than 79 cm by 2100 cannot be ruled out. In the future, many islands and coastal cities will be at a high risk of becoming submerged in water.  __Solutions__

The only solution is to reduce the burning of fossil fuels, which will slow down global warming, but in fact, there is no certain way to stop the icecaps from melting. Luckily, Australia's sea level is only increasing slower than the rest of the world which is good. We also need to plan urbam developments away from the coastal edge, thankfully urban development in Sydney is moving in a westerly direction, but the attraction of living on the water's edge is tantilising for Sydney siders.

 __Figure 11 Predicted global mean sea level rise__