Louisiana Coastal Restoration Already In Trouble, May Not Match New Sea Level Rise Projections

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Even as Louisiana embarks on a multi-billion-dollar program to begin rebuilding its coast, evidence continues to mount that new coastal land will have to contend with a more rapid rise in sea level than projected in present state plans.

NASA officials Wednesday said the present rate of worldwide sea level rise has reached 3 millimeters a year (0.13 inch/year) and is increasing, the result of global warming. That compares to 1.7 millimeters a year for the entire 20th Century and 1.8 millimeters between 1961 to 2003, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. NASA's scientists studying sea level change say that means an increase of at least 3 feet in sea level, though they are not certain whether that level will be reached within 100 years or longer.

Such dire predictions raise concerns about both the ability of restoration projects in the Louisiana's coastal Master Plan to survive the rising water. They also challenge the ability of New Orleans area levees and new levees being built elsewhere in the state to keep up with future water heights.

"As little as 3 feet becomes quite problematic, not only for holding out hope to maintain the roads to Port Fourchon and Grand Isle, but also to the broader array of protection and restoration efforts in the state plan," said Don Boesch, president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and a New Orleans native.

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http://www.nola.com/futureofneworleans/2015/08/rapidly_rising_sea_level_threa.html