The Port of San Diego has partnered with Scripps Institution to study, through the newly created center, how San Diego can best prepare for rising sea levels. Port officials must submit to the State Lands Commission an assessment addressing sea level rise by July 1, 2019.
The Board of Port Commissioners agreed sea level rise is an issue to take seriously and requires proper planning.
A joint assessment of predicted sea level rise by the National Research Council and officials in California, Oregon and Washington projected the ocean could be between 17 and 65 inches higher by 2100. The assessment predicted a sea level rise of 2 to 12 inches by 2030 and 5 to 24 inches by 2050.
The State Assembly’s Select Committee Sea Level Rise and the California Economy predicted last year sea level rise would negatively impact many of the state’s coastal harbors and marinas.
“Sea-level rise is expected to cause many facilities … [such as] ports, harbors, jetties and breakwaters, marinas, and a panoply of service facilities from fish processing plants, to boatyards, to ice and fuel docks … to be more vulnerable to wave and surge conditions, if not completely inundated,” the legislative report stated.
