About 170 coastal communities across the nation will experience chronic flooding 20 years from now, disrupting people’s lives and daily routines, and forcing residents of those communities to make difficult and expensive decisions, according to a recent study by the Union of Concerned Scientists. In a moderate sea level rise scenario, cities and towns along the Delaware Bay and New Jersey coastlines could see between 15 and 40 percent of their land flooded at least 26 times each year by 2030.
The interactive Union of Concerned Scientists’ report “When Rising Seas Hit Home” allows residents to view how their towns may be impacted under different sea level rise scenarios. For parts of the Delaware Bay, it shows that by 2060 the number of communities effected by tidal driven coastal flooding will double. By 2100, it doubles again, impacting counties further north along the Bay including highly populated areas of Wilmington, Del., Camden, N.J., and even Burlington, N.J.
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