The rising level of the sea has put flights on hundreds of airports at the danger of being disrupted. The report of a study shows this disturbing fact.
More than 260 airports around the globe are currently at the chance of coastal flooding. While by the end of the century, dozens of airports would be below mean sea level. This was found in a study of research published in the journal Climate Risk Management.
Hundreds more could be in danger of sinking depending on the volume of sea-level rise driven by global warming, by 2100.
Airports in Asia and Pacific are on the top of the list.
To come up with the pecking order, researchers looked at several factors that are affecting. For example, the likelihood of flood from extreme sea levels, flood safeguard and the result on flights.
The research revealed that one-fourth of the air flying routes could be affected.
Richard Dawson says that these endangered coastal airports are unjustly vital to the global airline network. Moreover, by 2100, ten to twenty per cent of all the air routes will be at the risk of dissolution. Hence, the rise in sea level poses a serious risk to global passenger and freight movements with a high cost of loss and turmoil.
Richard Dawson is co-author of the study and professor at earth system engineering at Newcastle Unversity in England.
Detailed Study of rising sea levels
The study is an addition to the huge library of researches that alerts us of threats of airports and other critical infrastructure due to rise in sea level.
The rise in sea levels is seen because of ocean warming and higher atmospheric that cause ocean water to increase. Apart from this, it leads to the melting of glaciers and ice sheets according to NOAA. An even higher temperature is driven by greenhouse gas emission, causing global warming.
The sea levels are rising faster, and some are on track for the worst effects from the rise in sea levels. The report is according to the most recent Sea Level Rise Report Card. This report card is produced by William and Marry’s Virginia Institute of Marine sciences.
The rise in sea level can make impacts of extreme weather can worsen by pushing deadly and destructive storms farther inland. Also, it can raise the rate of coastal flooding from high tides combined with sea-level rise. This phenomenon is also called “nuisance flooding.”
Not to mention that it is just not the air travel that would e potentially affected.
Moreover, some airports play a crucial role in providing economical, social, and medical lifelines. One such example could be in low lying islands, said Dawson.
Also, Mr Dawson adds that the cost of adaption will be simple in terms of global infrastructure expense. Yet, in a few locations, some airports will be unfeasible because of the rising sea level.