The Boston Globe: "How Boston is — and should be — preparing for rising seas"

April 4, 2014

THERE’S A DARK JOKE in the city planning community that refers to an exhibit at the Boston Public Library. Near the Boylston Street entrance, a floor map titled “Boston Over Time” shows how the city has grown since 1630. Much of that growth, including the Seaport District, the Back Bay, and the land the airport is on, is reclaimed wetlands and marshes? or plain old landfill. As the joke goes, the map also shows the future, because with climate change, the sea is going to take it all back. While Boston wins accolades for battling carbon emissions?—?last year the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy ranked it number one of the country’s 34 largest cities because of both energy use and community engagement?—?the city simply isn’t ready for a rising sea. But it’s coming. “We’ll see sea-level rise in the next century even if emissions stop today,” says Brian Swett, Boston’s chief of environment and energy since 2012 and a veteran of both the policy and real estate development worlds. Scenario plans such as predictive maps?—?including those from Ellen Douglas, a hydrologist and professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and other scientists around the world?—?show that by the year 2050, global sea levels will rise at least 2 feet and by 2100, 3 to 6 feet. (Swett says the city is planning for at least 2.) During normal weather, a 2-plus-foot rise will mean twice-a-day flooding in lower parts of the city. During big storms, there will be higher storm surges, flooding perhaps 30 percent of Boston, according to a report Douglas coauthored. Read more at The Boston Globe...