GEOG 01 Global Warming: Sea Level Rise in Australia
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Global Warming: Sea Level Rise in Australia
Priscilla Molina
What are the effect of the hazard?
Why this matters...
Rising sea levels are a threat to the residential areas and tourist locations close to the coast as well as to most of Australia's tourism. Our coastal areas are over-developed and densely populated in Australia.
Peoples homes become destroyed and submerged underwater giving them no opportunity to be able to stay in their homes. No businesses are open and shelter and food is limited.
Many people also obtain fresh water from rivers and groundwater that is used for drinking and agriculture. (Coastadapt.crom.au. 2019) It is known that once the sea level rises high enough it would eventually come into contact with the little fresh land water we have and would essentially render it useless
Animals lose there shelter need to migrate to dry land and learn to adapt without dieing drowning and losing the food they eat.
Cairns city
NASA has observed the global temperature is getting warmer and the sea level is increasing(Maria-Jose Viñas, 2019). The way ocean water works according to NASA's website is that the ocean is “ just like mercury in thermometer increases, water expands and the ocean level increases. The ocean takes in more than 90% of the heat from global warming(Maria-Jose Viñas, 2019).High water temperatures also cause a lot of the ice in our glaciers to melt, thus ending up in the ocean and causing the sea level to rise.
In this website http://coastalrisk.com.au/# they show the drastic change predicted for the flood coastlines of Australia. Cairns city is one example of this drastic change expected in 2100
2019 Current Map View
Website Used
2100 Prediction of water level rise
What is being done?
Sea Level Rise in Australia
Australia is a continent where the majority of the population lives on the coasts surrounded by the Indian ocean.
Over the last 23 years sea levels have been rising at an exponential rate more alarming than ever predicted. The rate at which sea levels rise is becoming a major impact in the cause of climate change and geographic change in Australia.
Who is affected?
Australia is beginning to adapt to future changes. One of the ways they are adapting is by bringing awareness through the website called coastalrisk.com, providing tools that can help individuals, communities and all levels of government prepare in the decades to come and communicate the risks of sea level rise and storm surge. (Coastalrisk.com.au, 2019)Another initiative that Australia is taking is setting up a guideline to reduce vulnerability of buildings to flood damage(Ses.nsw.gov.au, 2019). This guideline booklet can help families and communities with lowering the cost of damages and personal loses due to the sea level rise. It is important to think about how the community is built and really hope it will sustain a flood or any natural disaster(Ses.nsw.gov.au, 2019). Another way they are minimizing sea level rise for the future is by creating flood storage. This flood storage prevents water from rising and provides more space underground to store overflowing water from sea level rise.(Ses.nsw.gov.au, 2019) Creating bridges to cope with future change in water level is another immediate effort. Water can also be held back by an obstruction to the water flow, also known as afflux, another key component Australia is incorporating.
Australia's Population
Today in Australia alone nearly 85% of people live within the local high tide level which means locals will be most impacted by the drastic changes in sea level.
The population of Australia is 25 million (Coastadapt.crom.au. 2019). If around eighty five percent of its population is located by the coast this means that more than 20 million people will eventually be affected by the sea rising in Australia in the next couple of years. (Coastadapt.crom.au. ,2019)
Environment Plants die, animals and people have to relocate and move to dry land.
People
Animals die or move to dry land.