Students study sea level rise in Barrington and Warren

Coastal impacts of climate change draws UPenn planning students to

Posted 10/10/18

The small group of college students stood at the end of the road and looked out toward the river. 

At low tide, the river seemed a long way off — a good 75 or 80 yards away from the …

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Students study sea level rise in Barrington and Warren

Coastal impacts of climate change draws UPenn planning students to

Posted

The small group of college students stood at the end of the road and looked out toward the river. 

At low tide, the river seemed a long way off — a good 75 or 80 yards away from the homes. A field of marsh grass served as a buffer for the nearby houses and their well-kept lawns. But there was evidence that sea level rise was already impacting the area, including a line of debris marking high tide's surprising reach.

The students, all part of a University of Pennsylvania graduate program focused on planning, had been touring Barrington and Warren for three days in an effort to better understand how sea level rise was impacting people and their property.

"We chose to come up to Rhode Island because the state is doing so many good things," said Scott Page, the UPenn professor teaching the course. "The students have all of this great research to work from."

Mr. Page said officials in the Ocean State have been dealing with sea level rise for years, and have already compiled a lot of data about how the state is being affected. He said students can use that data while focusing on the challenges planners face in low-lying coastal communities.

"Both towns (Barrington and Warren) are really, really beautiful in different ways," said Mr. Page. "In some ways they are quintessential Northeast shore towns. But they are coming to grips with these issues in different ways. And they have different challenges. Warren has more density along the water. Barrington is more spread out … That provides different opportunities."

Teresa Crean is a coastal community planner for Coastal Resources Center at the University of Rhode Island. Ms. Crean worked closely with the students during their tour of Barrington and Warren.

"I think property owners are going to have to face it that they are going to have sea water on their property at some point in the future," she said. "And what they do about that is what we talked about. There are three concepts that are being discussed for long-term adaption."

Ms. Crean said homeowners can try to protect their property from sea level rise, or they can try to accommodate the water: "You… can design your property to allow the water to come in and out," she said.

The third option may seem a bit more drastic for property owners in Barrington and Warren.

"Or you can get out of the way. We talked about managed retreat or relocation," she said, while looking at a home that borders the Barrington River. "So, can this property, for example, elevate to accommodate the water? Or are they going to have to abandon this property and move inland?"

The home in question sits along the northern edge of the Barrington River in Hampden Meadows, but the message Ms. Crean was sharing could be echoed for hundreds, maybe thousands of homes along the waters' edge in Barrington and Warren.

"When you look at the map for projecting future flooding from storms and sea level rise, Barrington and Warren are at risk for losing a lot of ground," she said. 

The impact

During the tour of Barrington and Warren on Wednesday, Oct. 3, Ms. Crean had equipped the UPenn students with a six-foot board painted in different shades of blue. 

Along one side the board were a series of numbers painted in gold and a second set of numbers scrawled in black. The gold numbers represented the 2012 NOAA projections for sea level rise. The black numbers showed the revised 2017 projects.

"In 2017, NOAA came in with new numbers based on all the science that's coming in," said Ms. Crean, referring to the melting of terrestrial land ice in Greenland and Antarctica, and other factors. 

By holding the stick at the edge of the water, students could check the numbers and see just how high the river and all surrounding water would rise by 2020 or 2050 or even 2095. The black "2095" number was about six feet higher than the current sea level.

Ms. Crean said there are also online mapping tools people can check out to see how their properties will be impacted by sea level rise in the future.

"The intent is to help with future planning and decision-making at the local level and with individual property owners, so you can make informed decisions," Ms. Crean said. "Right now the CRMC is emphasizing education — know your risks so you can to start to plan, so you can think about your 30-year mortgage plan, or how much more time you want to get out of your property before you abandon it, relocate, downsize, whatever." 

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