Climate Change and Sea Level: A Challenge to Science and Society

About this page

On this web site on sea level changes, I provide input to the discussion on sea level changes, the potential impact, and the development and implementation of mitigation and adaptation strategies. Sea level is certainly the physical quantity that has dominated and continues to dominate my work as a scientist, and the contents of these pages are based on my work of more than 30 years. In recent years, I have been involved in several assessments of future sea level changes in densely populated coastal zones. These assessments have helped me to develop a broad understanding of the scientific, societal, cultural, economic, and environmental issues relevant for the development of resilient coastal zones ready to adopt to changing sea levels.

On these pages I comment on the challenges that sea level changes pose to society and to science. I layout the science of sea level changes. I discuss the contribution of science to the societal discourse about mitigation and adaptation and the science support for implementation. I also comment on the responsibilities of decision makers, and how they might or might not rely on science input for their decision process.

Comments on these pages are highly welcome. If you would like to comment, please, send the comments to HP Plag. Please, indicate whether your comments can be published on the Comments page. Please, note that I do not publish anonymous comments, so your permission to publish your comments implies that your e-mail address and name will be included.