Artificial islands are the solution to sea level rise

The sixth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), By the middle of this century, 1 billion people will be at much greater risk of flooding. Due to rising sea levels and storm surge, it will face increased tidal flooding and even permanent flooding.

The UN Secretary-General himself Antonio GuterresAt a meeting of the UN Security Council at the beginning of last February, he warned that the rise in sea levels due to climate change poses a direct threat to millions of people and warned that the world “could witness a disaster”. Mass migration on a biblical scale“.

This is the future of many social difficultiesIncluding “cultural decline, loss of identity, integration difficulties, job uncertainties, as well as questions about who will receive immigrants,” the University of East Anglia in the UK, which participated in the research, said in a statement. .

In the case of Maldives, which currently has a population of 500,000, More than 80% of its territory on more than a thousand islands is less than one meter above sea level.. The researchers argue that in order to preserve all this land, it must inevitably be raised above sea level in the long term.

Island climate refugees

With current sea level rise estimates, the Maldives’ up to 200 inhabited natural islands could be submerged by 2100.

The authors thus offer an alternative general pessimistic view will ultimately be the ultimate response to sea level rise forced migrationHE abandonment of atolls and even entire countries and appearance climate refugees islanders

“Nations with low atolls, very vulnerable to climate changeespecially due to sea level rise. Strict climate change mitigation will slow but not stop rising waters that will continue for centuries.The study, published in Environmental Research: Climate, “will require additional long-term adaptation,” says the study.

There is an additional problem: increasing urbanization it concentrates the population in a few centers, particularly around the capital islands, creating additional pressure as most of the atoll nations are “land poor” suitable for living.

The authors argue that structural adaptation through land elevation and formation of artificial islands It is possible and can be used to “maintain sufficient land area above sea level to meet social and economic needs for several centuries”.

The study took the Maldives as a reference, especially in and around the capital city (Grand Malé), where important developments have already taken place and more is expected. Migration to urban centers, particularly Malé, is widespread and the trend continues, which means: many other islands are depopulated or abandoned.

Innovative and positive solutions

Using sand extracted from the sea, the Maldives has built several artificial islands, one of which is next to Malé’s, Hulhumalé, and plans to build several more to meet the needs of rapid urbanization and the rise of the tourism industry.

“Tourism is critical to the Maldivian economy. Resort islands require a different environment than urban islands. soft engineering reinforcing the natural processes that produce atolls,” say the study authors.

“The advance of the land and the rise of the islands, technical solution In the face of sea level rise, any practice must also address the additional political, human, physical, engineering and economic-financial challenges that arise.”

Enabling artificial islands and upgrading existing ones so that the population can move slowly in an adaptive manner is “a realistic alternative scientists say, “to common assumptions about forced migration and national abandonment. One solution might be to raise the ground.” Useful and applicable even on continental coasts. I would just have to assessing environmental impactsresearchers clarify.

when it comes costHe points out that sand costs 7.5 euros per cubic meter, which means approximately: To raise 7.5 million 1 square meters of land.

“The ideas presented here are a starting point and provide a development and adaptation plan for the development of island communities. innovative and positive solutions “It has the potential to allow them to stay on these islands for centuries.”

“Again, creating artificial islands is no reason not to mitigate climate change. The authors state that more effort is needed to reduce the risks.

Reference work: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2752-5295/acb4b3

…….

Contact details of the environment department: crisisclimatica@prensaiberica.es