Hampton Roads Targeted for National Sea Level Rise Project

Norfolk a few Fridays ago - high tide and heavy rains.  AltDaily photo

While most Virginia Republicans - including the former chair of the Republican Party of Virginia Beach - remain climate change deniers with their heads up their asses, climate change and related rising sea levels is happening.  With the Hampton Roads area considered the most endangered area on the east coast other than New Orleans, it is no surprise that Hampton Roads has been targeted for a new project aimed at devising ways to deal with the reality of what is happening.  It is noteworthy that while the Virginia GOP remains in denial, the U.S. military is taking the matter seriously. A piece in the Virginian Pilot looks at the announced project.  Here are highlights:

Hampton Roads will be the site of a national pilot project to figure out how different levels of government, the private sector and academia can work together to combat the effects of sea level rise and climate change.

The two-year initiative, supported by the White House, was unveiled Tuesday at a conference at Old Dominion University on preparing for rising water and flooding.

To aid the effort, ODU President John Broderick also announced the creation of a university institute to research solutions.

A combination of rising seas and sinking land makes Hampton Roads one of the nation's most vulnerable regions to flooding and storms.

ODU professor Hans-Peter Plag, director of the Mitigation and Adaptation Research Institute, called Hampton Roads - with its port, military installations and coastal communities - a "natural laboratory" for studying the issue.

Task force members will be appointed, and a charter will be developed in the next year as the group works on long-term strategic and policy recommendations for sea level rise and major storm surges, said Ray Toll, ODU's liaison to the Navy and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Rear Adm. Kevin Slates, director of the Navy's Energy and Environmental Readiness Division, said one of the task force's big challenges will be how to plan for an uncertain future.

Rear Adm. Dixon Smith, Commander of the Navy's Mid-Atlantic Region, said it will be essential for the task force to have clear objectives and get support from the community.

If that doesn't happen, he said, "the funding will not flow, and we'll end up putting this on the shelf."