Low-lying, coastal cities are in hot water. As temperatures keep rising, so do sea levels, and that means that big chunks of major U.S. cities will be submerged in the centuries to come.
Miami, for one, has been spending millions of dollars dealing with recurring flooding. And researchers estimate that it will be submerged in the next few decades. New Orleans is in a similar position.
New York City is also facing a significant threat: According to a 2015 report, the city could experience up to a 6-foot rise in sea levels in the 21st century. A new interactive visualization by Landscape Metrics illustrates exactly what that means for the city’s residents and its infrastructure. Their website explains:
Previous sea level rise maps have shown the areas of cities that could be underwater in the future. However, our visualization goes one step further by providing information on what occupies those areas. Our project tracks the number of people, schools, transportation facilities, and waste treatment facilities that would be inundated by a sea level increase of up to 5 feet.
A 5-foot rise, for example, would affect nearly 1,500,000 people...
...more than 350 schools...
…and around 250 transport (below, top) and waste-management (below, bottom) facilities.
These pictures paint a disheartening picture of the future of cities. But keep in mind the words of Michael Berkowitz, the president of the 100 Resilient Cities initiative, who recently told CityLab that, with respect to climate change, “cities are piloting different solutions to different problems all the time.” The hope now is that these city-driven solutions are readily accepted and implemented in time.
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