Business View Civil Municipal June 2023

7 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 4, ISSUE 6 Source- Americantownandcounty.com, Andy Castillo, First Published 08, MAy, 2023 In the next three decades, scientists predict that sea levels could rise between 4 and 8 inches. When combined with climate change-driven extreme weather, this increase poses a serious danger to infrastructure, economic prosperity and the wellbeing of many West Coast cities and counties. By 2050, for example, an estimated $8 to $10 billion in property is projected to be threatened by rising sea levels in California alone. And currently, the state has the nation’s largest ocean economy, valued at more than $44 billion annually. Without adaptation, the economies, properties and infrastructure of West Coast communities could be put at risk. “In the San Francisco Bay Area alone, 104,000 existing jobs and the creation of 85,000 new jobs could be directly threatened by SLR in the next 40 years,” reads the report, “Adapting Coastal Cities and Territories to Sea Level Rise in North America—U.S. West Coast,” published last month by the Ocean and Climate Platform, an international climate network of more than 100 organizations. The report stemmed from a workshop hosted by the international climate initiative Sea’ties. In the face of sea level rise, researchers put REPORT: WITH SEA LEVELS ON THE RISE, SOME WEST COAST COMMUNITIES MUST CONSIDER ‘MANAGED RETREAT’ OPENING LINES