Fifty-year Floods to Become Daily Events if Climate Change and Sea Level Rise Aren’t Curbed

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Hawaii released a study this week that concluded once-in-a-lifetime floods will become daily events in most U.S. coastal areas by the end of this century if climate change and sea level rise aren’t brought under control.

The study, published in Scientific Reports, said low-lying cities such as Miami, New Orleans and Honolulu will be especially vulnerable to the increasingly higher tides and storm surge generated by ever-stronger tropical storms. In addition, the researchers said beach and cliff erosion will make coastal areas more vulnerable to higher tides than they already are.

Sean Vitousek, a US Geological Survey scientist, told The Guardian, “If future sea-level rise causes once extreme but rare floods to occur frequently then … this may render some part of the US coastline uninhabitable.”