One clear-cut example is Jakarta, home to around 10 million people, and dubbed as the "fastest-sinking city in the world". Numerous major cities in the world are also at a great risk of being inundated. The European Union-funded Life Adaptate project enumerated countries where most people will potentially be affected by sea level change, with China as the highest, having 43 million people in precarious coastal locations.Īlso read: Group of Great White Sharks Spotted Hunting Together in a 'Kill Zone' In fact, nearly all of the Pacific islanders will be vulnerable to rising sea levels (around 3 million) and should therefore relocate before the end of the century, according to the Science and Development Network. The small island in the heart of the Pacific could lose two-thirds of its land if sea levels rise by 3 feet. Technically, countries with the lowest elevations cannot evade the list, one of them being the Maldives, the flattest country on Earth.Īccording to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), Maldives has an average elevation of just 3 feet, and should it experience sea level rise on the order of just 1.5 feet, it will lose around 77% of its land area by 2100.Īnother country with an extremely low average elevation is Kiribati, around 6 feet above sea level. The new sea defences are designed to respond to rising sea levels and changing climate and offer protection from flooding to more than 10,000 homes and 700 businesses for the next 100 years. It stretches 4.5km along Southsea front from Old Portsmouth to Eastney and work is being carried out in six phases. Work began on the £100M Southsea Coastal Scheme in September 2020. SOUTHSEA, ENGLAND - MARCH 17: Aerial views of the sea defence work on Main Southsea, England. (Photo : Photo by Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images) Should sea levels rise to this extent, will countries, cities or states disappear entirely in our lifetime? LiveScience lists down countries which will most likely be affected. The agency predicts that this will likely rise by at least 1 foot above the levels seen in 2000 by the start of the next century, while the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that they will rise by 16 to 25 inches by 2100.Ī 2019 study in the journal Nature Communications says as many as 250 million people could be "directly affected". So far, sea level rise has more than doubled from 0.06 inch per year throughout most of the 20th century to 0.14 inch from 2006 to 2015, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The rate at which they are rising suggests that several cities, even countries, will submerge and disappear from the world map. This map shows how much of Cardiff city centre will be underwater with 1.11m of sea level rise.It has been constantly documented how sea levels are rising rapidly, yet estimated rates throughout the year still surprise us. Green indicate risks from sea-level rise whereas blue indicates a risk of flooding:Īreas likely to be underwater due to see level rises from melting icecaps:
The images below show how different parts of Wales will be affected. 20-30% increase in river levees at peak flow.To make the map, the designers used the central estimate for climate change which assumes the following: Unlike many parts of Wales, Cardiff is likely to see significant investments in flood defences in coning years. It is worth noting that these images do not take into account future flood defences and reflect the situation on the ground currently.
These maps will be updated every six months and show that 11.3% of Wales is at risk of flooding from the sea. Read more: See the picture across Wales here The new maps published by the Welsh Government and Natural Resources Wales will compel developers to take into account future flooding and coastal erosion risk. New pictures show just how at risk the Welsh capital is from climate change.įor several years now Cardiff has been identified as one of the cities in the world most at risk of rising sea levels.