Climate and Sea Level Change : Observations, Projections and Implications

This book considers the existence of past sea level change, examines the possible effects of increasing greenhouse gas concentrations on the future of climate and sea levels as well as severe tropical storms, and finally looks at the developed and developing world.

Through the writings of the world's leading experts in their fields, this book, first published in 1993, presents the general state of knowledge regarding the effects of climatic change on sea level and their associated impacts. The evidence for past sea level changes and their possible climatic causes on both geological and secular time-scales are reviewed, as are methods for improving observations of sea level changes. These observations examine greenhouse gas concentrations as well as oceanic thermal expansion on Greenland and Antarctic glaciers and ice sheets. Projections of global mean temperature and sea level rise over the next century are made, emphasising the uncertainties involved. A particular area of study is the low-lying coastal regions and the possible effects of severe tropical storms and storm surges. Case studies of the Ganges-Brahmaputra and Mississippi deltas, the Netherlands, Hong Kong and the Norfolk coast of the UK, among others document the regional and local scale where issues relating to sea level, physical environment and socio-economic effects are paramount.