Thursday, November 01, 2012
Will Honolulu pull its head out of the sand and stop shoreline development at Kakaako?
“After rising roughly an inch per decade in the last century, coastal waters in New York are expected to climb as fast as six inches per decade, or two feet by midcentury, according to a city-appointed scientific panel. That much more water means the city’s flood risk zones could expand in size.”
by Larry Geller
In the wake of the devastation and loss of life caused by hurricane Sandy this week, New York City may finally move on advice it has had for some time, including this warning:
A state report on rising sea levels, issued on the last day of Gov.
David A. Paterson’s administration in 2010, suggested that erecting structural barriers to restrain floodwaters could be part of a broader approach, along with relocating buildings and people farther from the coasts.[New York Times, For Years, Warnings That It Could Happen Here, 10/31/2012]
The same sea is rising around Hawaii, but what are we doing here in Honolulu? We’re about to develop within the current inundation zone in Kakaako. Shouldn’t Sandy be a wakeup call for us as well? Instead of “relocating buildings and people farther from the coasts,” our city planners (and I use the term loosely) plan to let OHA develop land that is going to be under water even sooner than scientists had anticipated a short time earlier.
The maps speak for themselves.
Is anyone listening?
See these related articles.
In other news, the Hawaii Realtors Association announced that ocean front properties will soon be in greater supply. Buy now or be priced out forever.
: November 3, 2012 at 11:33:00 AM HST << Home
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