Graphic depictions of rising sea effects on coastal cities

[Leslie B Wagle]

A rendering project by someone: 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2629015/Under-sea-Incredible-images-Americas-famous-coastal-landmarks-look-like-sea-levels-rose-just-12-feet.html

True or not, this sure is a way to make a statement. I guess in the distant future, if this happens as shown, marches on Washington will have to find somewhere else other than the Mall for a stage.

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

The sea has been rising for 11,000 years. It has risen about 11″ in the last hundred (in my area, if that makes any sense).

We’ve been dealing with a revised set of FEMA flood insurance maps that are going into affect in mid-July that are causing lots of problems with flood insurance rates on existing properties, changes in buildability of properties, what type of foundation can be used, how high the first floor can be on a building, and how high any mechanicals can be.

I got an email last night from someone who wants me to do a wetlands buffer mitigation plan for him by Thursday so that he can get a building permit before the flood zone goes into effect because the change in flood zone changes where the protected resource area known as a Coastal Bank will be by current definitions and moves the 50′ no disturb zone so that the lot will be unbuildable.

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

I had another meeting today where the flood zone is changing from contour 10 to contour 12. The slope also gets steeper between those two contours. Currently, there is no Coastal Bank because the slope within the flood zone is less than 10%, but it gets steeper between contour 10 and 12 making a Coastal Bank to elevation 12 and shifting from the nearest wetland being across the street to 30′ feet into the front yard with a 50′ no disturb buffer to that ….. on a 9,000 SF lot. This will severely limit alterations to the house and will require a lot of conversion of lawn into native woody habitat.

[Jason T. Radice]

It will look like that, not because of sea level rise, but because the ground is sinking. They working to stabilize a bulkhead wall that has sunk over the years in the tidal basin. Remember, much of DC is built on a filled in swamp.

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