Document Type

Report

Publication Title

The impacts of SLR on Egypt, 45th ISOCARP Congress 2009

Abstract

Sea level changes are caused by several natural phenomenon; the three primary contributing ones are: ocean thermal expansion, glacial melt from Greenland and Antarctica - in addition to a smaller contribution from other ice sheets- and change in terrestrial storage. Among those, ocean thermal expansion has been expected to be the dominating factor behind the rise in sea level. However, new data on rates of deglaciation in Greenland and Antarctica suggest greater significance for glacial melt, and a possible revision of the upperbound estimate for sea level rise (SLR) in this century (Dasgupta, et al., 2007). It is predicted that, with global warming, global average sea levels may rise by between 7 and 36 cm by the 2050s, by between 9 and 69 cm by the 2080s and 30–80 cm by 2100. The majority of this change will occur due to the expansion of the warmer ocean water (Roaf, et al., 2005). Since the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets contain enough water to raise the sea level by almost 70 m, people will be directly affected by rising sea levels in several ways. As seas rise many areas of the coasts will be submerged, with increasingly severe and frequent storms and wave damage, shoreline retreat will be accelerated. In addition to expected disastrous flooding events caused by severe climate events such as heavy flooding, high tides, windstorms in combination with higher seas (Dasgupta, et al., 2007).

Publication Date

2009

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