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for 30 years, its location may become the only available site 

 for power generation in a given region for hundreds of years. 



The wide range of sea level rise scenarios makes planning 

 more difficult than it would be if we were certain about a 

 particular forecast. Nevertheless, prudence demands that 

 decision makers plan for at least the low sea level rise scenario, 

 which would change many decisions. For other decisions, the 

 low scenario presents few risks, but the high scenario would 

 pose major problems. In such cases risk analysis can be used to 

 balance the benefits and costs of various planning options for 

 for each sea level rise scenario. 



QUANTITATIVE ESTIMATES SHOW LARGE PHYSICAL EFFECTS 

 AND ECONOMIC IMPACTS FROM ANTICIPATED SEA LEVEL RISE 



Few studies of the physical consequences of sea level 

 rise have been undertaken. Schneider and Chen concluded that 

 a 4.7-meter (15-foot) rise in sea level would innundate over 

 one-fourth of Louisiana and Florida, as well as one-eighth of 

 Delaware, Maryland, and the District of Columbia .5/ 



EPA has funded case studies on the impacts of sea level 

 rise for the areas around Charleston, South Carolina and 

 Galveston, Texas. Detailed results of these studies are 

 available in Sea Level Rise Conference Document . 6/ a forth- 

 coming book entitled Sea Level Rise to the Year 2100 , will 

 contain papers by the same researchers, as well as the reactions 

 of coastal decision makers who attended that conference. V 



