Adapting to Sea Level Rise

Climate Change + Climate Adaptation
In California, climate change impacts include the loss of Sierra snowpack, increasing and increasingly intense wildfires, extreme heat events, and sea level rise. These impacts affect our health, economic well-being, ecological resilience, and the places we call home. Addressing climate change is a defining challenge of our time. We address climate change in two primary ways: taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and taking action to adapt to the changing environment. We need to do both. When it comes to adaptation, Marin County has analyzed vulnerability to sea level rise and has published guides for local governments and others to identify tools for adapting to it. With our General Plan Update, Tiburon needs to choose the set of tools that will work here.

Understanding Sea Level Rise
We know that parts of downtown Tiburon experience flooding today during major storms. What will things be like as sea levels rise? A set of projections calculated for Marin County, known as BayWAVE, show sea level rise scenarios at 10, 20, and 60 inches, and estimate where regular inundation would occur as well as what would be vulnerable in 100-year flood events. It is likely that sea level rise between 10 and 25 inches by 2040, the end of our current planning period, and by 60 inches or more by end of century. Sea level rise also interacts with stormwater, groundwater, and liquefaction in ways that we’re still learning about.

Links