In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projected that global sea levels would rise from 7 to 23 inches in the coming century. Sea level rise refers to the observed increase in global mean sea level over time.
"We're already starting to see the impacts of rising water levels along our waterfronts." "Sea level rise is a big issue-a major issue-for us," says Grover Fugate, executive director of the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council, NOAA's partner agency tasked with implementing the National Coastal Zone Management program in the state. With $2 billion invested in developments on the waterfronts in Providence, East Providence, and Pawtucket, coastal managers knew they needed to meet the problem head on. Though the waterfront park's flooding was limited in scale, its implications for the future were troublesome. Other evidence implicating sea level rise as the root of the problem included local erosion rates that had doubled from 1990 to 2006 and some freshwater wetlands near the coast that were transitioning to salt marsh. The city having to close its hurricane gates numerous times a year to keep its riverfront walkways dry in the face of high tides pointed to a problem that the city couldn't afford to ignore.Ĭoastal managers didn't have to look any further than tidal records to identify the source of the trouble: long-term data from tide gauges showed an increase in average sea level of almost a foot since 1929. Recurring flooding at a waterfront park in the City of Providence was a tip off to Rhode Island coastal resource managers that something was going on.
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