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Comment by azinman2 | Hacker News Reader

So what will coastal cities (eg Bay Area) do?

Does Bay Area have that problem even theoretically? They are quite high up. It's the flat near sea level areas like Florida that are in danger.

Aren't places like the pier area pretty low?

You might be able to answer this yourself based on the tides now. Just ask what a more exaggerated tide would do.

If current tides are putting you within 30cm of danger, then you're already flooding frequently from sea storms. Tides aren't the danger when living on the coast, wind that pushes water is.

Probably look at places that already have flooding on king tides. San Diego, Newport Beach, seal beach, motto bay, etc. I think a lot of the stuff on sf bay is built on piers high above the highest tides.

Where is the flooding in San Diego? Honestly wondering, because the only places I might expect are Mission Beach and maybe Imperial Beach.

Yeah San Diego is a weird example - most of our coastal property is relatively high up.

A quick Google of "king tides flooding San Diego" shows a couple news articles mentioning National City and Imperial Beach, so your suspicions are probably correct - it's the flatter places down south that everyone forgets exist.

https://www.adaptingtorisingtides.org/

The Dutch might have a new industry, exporting their skill at reclaiming land from the sea.

And how to keep inland areas below sea level, pumped dry reliably.

Sadly the Dutch have their own problems now and probably need to focus all of their efforts on their own coastline like the rest of us, unless you think they can export "an integrated approach, in which all stakeholders are involved in finding solutions for climate change issues" to other countries like the U.S. that are "more individualistic." https://www.pbs.org/wnet/peril-and-promise/2019/07/dutch-bar...

That's rather the opposite of this XKCD What-If on draining the oceans:

https://what-if.xkcd.com/53/

> And after 2000 years of trying to hold back the sea, the Netherlands are finally high and dry. No longer living with the constant threat of a cataclysmic flood, they're free to turn their energies toward outward expansion. They immediately spread out and claim the newly-exposed land.

Interesting to note that in the past, sea levels were 100+ meters lower. There are ancient stories that tell of now underwater landmarks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Holocene_sea_level_rise

https://theconversation.com/ancient-aboriginal-stories-prese...

Low Countries have this problem since centuries back, yes? Dikes, pumping, other options have mitigated issues. It is the developing country needing to worry, those with out money for these.

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