Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Boston ii, massaChusetts
Greater Boston, with a population of around 4.5 million, is one of dozens of major urban areas around the world lo-
cated at low elevations and highly vulnerable to the coming rise in sea level. Much of downtown Boston was created
by filling in salt marshes and the nearby bay.
Cities
was abandoned and its buildings moved to
safer sites on the mainland after three close
calls with closely spaced hurricanes in the
late 1890s.
Today lots of small nations and com-
munities are in trouble. As beaches once
locked in Arctic permafrost are released
by the melting ice, native seaside villages
are threatened by shoreline erosion as well
as sea level rise and increased storm ac-
tivity. The atoll nations in the Pacific and
Indian oceans are already in the advanced
planning stage of island and even nation
abandonment.
miami: no high ground
Globally the most threatened city of all (ac-
cording to the UN's Organization for Eco-
nomic Cooperation and Development), at
least in terms of the value of property that
will be flooded by a three-foot sea level rise,
is Miami. With a population of a bit over
5.2 million, Miami is the fourth-largest city
in the United States, behind New York, Los
Angeles, and Chicago. It also is the nation's
lowest city. Overall the average elevation is
1.8 meters (6 feet), but large areas are be-
low 0.9 meters (3 feet) in elevation and the
