Climate expert warns rising sea levels pose major threat to future of city

RISING sea levels – rather than Atlantic storms – may be the monster lurking in the deep for coastal cities like Galway, as the impact of climate change increases over the coming decades.

With the city preparing itself for another battering of rain this weekend, one of the country’s most respected climate experts told the Galway City Tribune that the increasing sea levels could pose the biggest threat to low lying coastal areas.

Dr Kieran Hickey, formerly of NUI Galway and now Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography at UCC, said that there was no quick solution to the problem of rising ocean levels.

“With global warming, the waters in the ocean expand while there is also the influence of the melting icecaps. This will have major implications for coastal cities like Galway, Cork and Dublin,” said Dr Hickey.

Earlier this week, there were a number of website reports suggesting that cities like Galway, Dublin and Cork could have disappeared off the map in 200 years time, based on data produced by the Inter-Governmental Committee on Climate Change.

Dr Hickey said that if overall global temperature increases could be held at 2°C by the end of the century – and he thought the figure would be closer to 3°C – this would still have a significant impact on sea level.

“There are no easy solutions to this ongoing rise in sea levels. We probably will see bigger barriers and walls in place along vulnerable coastal areas while the construction of any new properties close to low-lying coastlines has to be looked at very closely,” said Dr Hickey.

He said that with sea levels due to rise in the region of 0.5 metres by the end of the century, the problem for coastal cities like Galway would be getting worse, especially along softer sedimentary coastline areas.

“For those thinking of building houses close to the coastline or buying properties in such areas, while they might like a sea view they certainly won’t want to be in the sea, a number of years down the road.

“Over the past week or so, while the rainfall and the storms have taken most of the attention, the far bigger long term problem – especially for the coastal communities – will be that of a rising sea level,” he warned.

While sea levels only rose by an estimated 1 to 2mms. during the 20th century, there are more recent estimates – based on satellite data collected over the past 20 years – that has now increased to at least 3mms per year.

The international Surging Seas project by Climate Central has now mapped out the likely impact of rising sea levels based on both a 2°C increase and a 4°C increase in overall global temperatures.

■ For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.