The study says more than 40 square miles of California's coastline may be lost to erosion by 2100, leaving the Bay Area deepest underwater.
An Oakland-based research institute released a report this week that warned at least 480,000 California
The study says more than 40 square miles of California's coastline may be lost to erosion by 2100, leaving the Bay Area deepest underwater.
An Oakland-based research institute released a report this week that warned at least 480,000 California residents could be affected by sea levels that are expected to rise by more than a meter by 2100.
The Pacific Institute's report, titled "The Impacts of Sea-Level Rise on the California Coast," concluded that a 1.4-meter sea level rise would affect 270,000 Bay Area residents during a 100-year flood event, the standard flood used for coastal planning.
The report also said that a wide range of critical infrastructure and almost $100 billion in property would also face an increased risk during a flood.
The report, commissioned by the California Department of Transportation, the Public Interest Research Program of the California Energy Commission, and the Ocean Protection Council, was an effort to put California in the lead in understanding the consequences of climate change.
The mean sea level has risen nearly eight inches at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco in the past century, and the sea level is projected to rise between 1 to 1.4 meters by 2100, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The report's five co-authors, whose fields of expertise include environmental engineers, energy and resource researchers, geographers and environmental justice, discovered the Bay Area could face the