Twice as Much Land in Developing Nations Will be Swamped by Rising Seas than Previously Projected, New Research Shows
More accurate mapping of terrain in coastal regions will allow countries to better assess flood risk.
Rising seas will swamp farmlands, pollute water supplies and displace millions of people much sooner than expected, scientists said last week, as they released new research that accurately calculates the vulnerability of coastal areas, especially in developing countries that have not had access to expensive coastal mapping technologies.
Sea level rise keeps speeding up, and “many coastal areas are lower than scientists thought they were,” said Ronald Vernimmer, lead author of the new study published last week in Earth’s Future, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.
Up until a few years ago, most estimates of how fast rising seas will inundate shorelines were based on radar measurements that can’t distinguish between tops of plants and buildings and the actual elevation of the ground beneath them, “and therefore overestimate surface elevation,” said Vernimmen, who works with the Dutch research firm Data for Sustainability.
The study he led analyzed global data from NASA’s ICESat-2 satellite, which uses light detection and ranging (lidar) to get more accurate measurements. A lidar instrument combines information from laser pulses, a scanner and a specialized GPS receiver to generate detailed three-dimensional information of features on the surface of the Earth.
The new study shows that every increment of sea level rise will cover more than twice as much land as older models predicted, and marks another advance in providing more accurate models of rising seas said Stefan Rahmstorf, a climate scientist with the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, who was not involved in the study.
“It is no surprise that, particularly for moderate sea-level rise, the improved elevation data are bad news,” he said. “More flooding can be expected for a given rise of 1 meter or 2 meters, and more people live in areas vulnerable to rising seas than was estimated with the old elevation models.
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Last Edited by Coastie Patriot on 02/07/2023 10:12 PMCoastie Patriot
SIC SEMPER TYRRANIS
THE SAME PEOPLE WHO SAID NO GUNS BECAUSE OF POLICE NOW WANT TO DEFUND THE POLICE!!!!
Dr Thaddeus They
They don't really care whether the truth gets out, because the public no longer knows what's meant by "the truth."
Well, I mean, no one can tell the difference anymore between what's real and what's fake.
Anyway, the point is, I can tell you all of this, right out in the open, because it doesn't matter who knows about it. They won't know whether to believe it or not.-
X Files: Lost art of Forehead Sweat
A gun is a tool, Marion, no better or no worse than any other tool, an axe, a shovel or anything. A gun is as good or as bad as the man using it. Remember that.
-SHANE-
Jefferson Smith: You see, boys forget what their country means by just reading The Land of the Free in history books. Then they get to be men they forget even more. Liberty's too precious a thing to be buried in books, Miss Saunders. Men should hold it up in front of them every single day of their lives and say: I'm free to think and to speak. My ancestors couldn't, I can, and my children will. Boys ought to grow up remembering that . - MR Smith Goes To Washington-
to grow up remembering th
My oath to support and defend the constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic has no expiration date!!!
Ten Bears : It's sad that governments are chiefed by the double tongues. There is iron in your words of death for all Comanche to see and so there is iron in your words of life. No signed paper can hold the iron. It must come from men. Outlaw Josey Wales