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Responses to Climate Change Program

Sea-Level Change Adaptation

RCC Program Home		Team Identification
Adaptation Challenges and Opportunities		Pilots and Demonstrations
Adaptation Implementation Framework		Regional Climate Impact Assessments
Climate Change Adaptation Communication		Regulatory Aspects of Climate Change and Adaptation
Coastal Storm Adaptation		Sea-Level Change Adaptation
Ecosystem Adaptation		Snow, Glacial, Ice Impacts and Adaptation
Greenhouse Gas Accounting		Vulnerability Assessments and Reporting
Hydrology to Support Adaptation		Water Management Adaptation

Sea-level change has been the focus of intense interest by the U.S. water resources science agencies (NOAA and USGS), along with other agencies contributing to the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP, 2009). The IPCC, particularly working groups 1 (Physical Science) and 2 (Impacts and Adaptation), have expended considerable effort researching sea-level change. Finally, agency reports and peer review literature have on the order of 10,000 citations in the area of sea-level change (or sea-level rise).

This team is relying on the extensive existing science and its relation to adaptation activities. USACE recently released (November 2011) updated guidance for sea-level change in the form of Engineer Circular (EC) 1165-2-212 "Sea-Level Change Considerations for Civil Works Programs". Engineer Circulars have a two-year lifespan, so this EC supersedes the previous EC 1165-2-211, "Incorporating Sea-Level Change Considerations in Civil Works Programs." This EC will be updated before November 2013 with new information, if it has not already been incorporated in an Engineer Manual (EM).

An interagency team will develop accompanying guidance on impacts and responses, to include updates to the Planning Guidance Notebook. An existing probabilistic tool used to assess vulnerability of non-developed natural coastlines or beach protection projects (Beachfx) will be updated for use with the new sea-level guidance.

Assessment of coastal vulnerabilities will be supported by phased improvement of an existing USGS coastal vulnerabilities tool to include variables and parameters specifically developed for USACE projects. The USACE Coastal Working Group and interagency experts, along with other national and international subject matter experts, will assist in developing the coastal vulnerability parameters tool improvements. The tool will be applied in demonstration projects at each phase to test its application. Lessons learned will be incorporated in policies, processes, methods and the final tool.

This team will work closely with the Coastal Storm Adaptation team to speed knowledge transfer between these closely related activities. The results will be incorporated into a Climate Change Engineer Manual.

revised 20 December 2011

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