Alisa Bokulich
Professor, Boston University
The Rise & Fall of Sea Level Measurements: A Brief History & Its Philosophical Lessons
The 19th century historian and philosopher of science and tidologist William Whewell sought to transform the study of the tides from a local, temporal phenomenon to a global, spatial phenomenon. Whewell famously launched one of the largest “big data” and “citizen science” project of his day—the Great Tide Experiment—coordinating thousands of simultaneous tide height measurements around the world. Whewell’s tidal work led him to refine several “methods of the inductive sciences” and data processing techniques, which continue to be used by scientists today. One of the questions Whewell hoped his research would illuminate was a determination of global mean sea level. Historically, the primary interest in measuring sea level was to determine a universal “vertical datum”—a fixed zero or reference surface from which the heights of buildings and mountains around the world could be measured and meaningfully compared. This project turned out to be far more complex than anticipated, with mean sea level varying substantially from place to place. Sea level had to be conceptually transformed from being a fixed, universal reference frame to being a dynamic object whose own height was to be measured, with a new zero for it to be measured from. Answering questions about long-term sea level rise requires having long-term sea-level measurement data, yet NOAA tide gauge data typically only goes back about 100 years. However, hidden within various dusty archives are historical sea level measurements that go back much further. To be useable, however, this “dark data” must be rescued and recalibrated to make it compatible with modern data. Here historians of science can be helpful in uncovering these records and determining how they were produced. The story of the rise and fall of sea level measurements is not only a story about the evolution of scientific concepts, methods, and data, but also a story about how citizen science, the history & philosophy of science, and scientific research can be productively combined and mutually beneficial.
Kelsey Leonard
University of Waterloo
Talk title & description coming soon!
Tammy Lewis
Director of Urban Sustainability Program and Professor of Sociology, Brooklyn College and Professor of Sociology and Earth & Environmental Sciences, CUNY Graduate Center
Climate Disaster in NYC: Assessing Four Post-Sandy Public Investment Strategies
Climate Disaster in NYC: Assessing Four Post-Sandy Public Investment Strategies Abstract: Governments provide the leading and largest responses to climate-change-related coastal disasters. They decide whether to reinvest and rebuild, to what degree, and in what ways. Public post-disaster investment shapes the future of post-disaster locales. We problematize public investment in vulnerable ecological zones and connect states’ choices to long-term climate adaptation trajectories of urban coastal zones. States use four strategies: a “do nothing” approach, managed retreat, accommodation with limited structural mitigation, and massive coastal reconstruction. Through a comparative analysis of the New York City area after Superstorm Sandy, we outline the consequences of each strategy. States’ climate disaster responses can lead to “perverse adaptation,” which increases population densities in climate vulnerable locations. Post-disaster public investment for massive coastal reconstruction commits the state to further investments over time, requiring larger shares of total public resources. The conclusions raise questions regarding the use of public funds and the necessary conditions to make ecologically sound investments.
Christopher Piecuch
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Coastal Sea-Level Acceleration and High-Tide Flooding in the United States
Talk description coming soon!
Katherine Serafin CC & GNCE ‘08
Assistant professor of Geography, University of Florida & affiliate faculty with the Florida Climate Institute, UF Water Institute, Center for Coastal Solutions, and Florida Sea Grant
How Waves, Tides, and Rivers Combine to Shape Coastal Hazards and Why It Matters
Coastal flooding and erosion occur when ocean water rises unusually high along the shoreline due to the combined effects of sea level rise, high tides, and storm-driven surges and waves. Although waves can strongly influence how far water reaches and how coastlines change, they are often overlooked in studies that rely only on tide gauge measurements. Within estuaries, river flow becomes an additional, critical driver of flooding events. Accounting for this full suite of interacting processes is essential for understanding and predicting site-specific flooding and erosion hazards, both now and in the future.
This talk highlights three examples of how separating and quantifying the factors that control how high the water reaches at the shoreline improves insight into coastal impacts. First, we examine whether sandy beaches are experiencing greater impacts today compared to past decades and assess how the individual drivers influencing peak coastal water elevation contribute to shaping these changes. Second, we identify areas in estuaries where coastal and river flooding interact and examine how sea level rise shifts their position and extent, revealing new areas at risk from combined flooding. We conclude by showing how accounting for changes in sea level, river flow, and coastal infrastructure can support more robust sea level rise planning, using a case study from an urban river system in California. Together, these results emphasize the importance of considering interacting drivers when assessing and predicting coastal hazards and developing forward-looking adaptation strategies.