President Obama issued an
executive order Friday that requires scientific assessment of the sea level rise caused by global warming to be taken into account when building new or rebuilding existing federal buildings and for local government projects that receive federal funding.
This is a major change from the previous approach. Until now, the government made siting decisions based on historical flooding data. But sea levels along the Atlantic Coast have risen eight inches since the 1880s and are projected to rise as much as another three feet by 2050 and as much as 10 feet by 2100. Moreover, coastal flooding associated with major storms is already reaching further inland than previously. This so-called "nuisance flooding" will get worse as the years go by.
Juliet Eiperin reports:
The new standard gives agencies three options for establishing the flood elevation and hazard area they use in siting, design and construction of federal projects. They can use data and methods “informed by best-available, actionable climate science”; build two feet above the 100-year flood elevation for standard projects and three feet above for critical buildings such as hospitals and evacuation centers; or build to the 500-year flood elevation.
The White House move comes just days after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released a massive post-Sandy report examining flood risks for 31,200 miles of the North Atlantic coast. The research explicitly took sea level rise induced by climate change into account, and finds that “Flood risk is increasing for coastal populations and supporting infrastructure.”
The building standards will be updated every five years based on new flood projections.
This is just plain commonsense. Much more should be done. But, naturally, there are those who object even to this wise mandate, despite the risks life and limb and despite the public and private costs of failing to put buildings above the rising sea and heightened storm-related flooding.
Even though the executive order doesn't touch privately funded construction, leadership at the National Association of Home Builders fear that possibility. NAHB CEO Jerry Howard said in a statement that new construction already takes sea-level rise into account and that the focus of any new initiatives "should address improving older homes, structures and infrastructure that are less resilient to flooding and other natural disasters. Further, any reforms must preserve the strong partnership between state and local governments so that they, not the federal government, retains primary authority over land use decisions.”While that sounds properly democratic, what's really behind the warning can be found in a NAHB white paper issued in October 2013:
NAHB’s concern overall is that the policies and programs currently in place and under consideration could significantly impact not only where land development can occur, but how we build.
Yes. They could. And hallelujah for it.