Global Warming, Rising Seas, and Solutions

[Silurian]

Solution a) build higher and thicker dikes and flood barriers.
Solution b) abandon some coastal areas.
I do not see any realistic point c)

In many farming areas b is often regarded as part of a. It is is cheaper to build the sea wall hundreds metres back from the shore and let the abandoned strip flood in storms and or spring tides. If the land is only flooded once or twice a month it could be used for grazing.

 

[Bootstoots]

One question I have - is it possible to build dikes and the like in river deltas, such as the Ganges delta (Bangladesh)? If not, what other options would they have? Given that they have ~160 million people packed within a few meters of sea level, it might be helpful to think of affordable solutions that would work in that sort of environment.

edit: Now that I look back, I see there was such a discussion a couple of pages ago. Interesting stuff - I didn't know that Bangladesh has already done quite a bit of "climate-proofing" on its own. Still though, how much of a sea-level rise are they capable of absorbing?

 

[Silurian]

It has been done already, but it is very expensive. I went on a tour of the Eastern Scheldt storm surge barrier when it was being constructed in the early 80s, it was very impressive but cost Euro2.5bn.

From Wiki

The Delta Works is a series of construction projects in the southwest of the Netherlands to protect a large area of land around the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta from the sea. The works consist of dams, sluices, locks, dikes, levees, and storm surge barriers. The aim of the dams, sluices, and storm surge barriers was to shorten the Dutch coastline, thus reducing the number of dikes that had to be raised.

Along with the Zuiderzee Works, Delta Works have been declared one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_Works