What is the definition of sea level rise?

(definition of sea level rise)

 The term sea-level rise generally designates the average long-term global rise of the
ocean surface measured from the centre of the earth (or more precisely, from the earth
reference ellipsoid), as derived from satellite observations. Relative sea-level rise refers to long-
term average sea-level rise relative to the local land level, as derived from coastal tide gauges.
(http://www.coastalwiki.org/wiki/Sea_level_rise)
 Global sea level trends and relative sea level trends are different measurements. Just as
the surface of the Earth is not flat, the surface of the ocean is also not flat—in other words, the
sea surface is not changing at the same rate globally. Sea level rise at specific locations may be
more or less than the global average due to many local factors: subsidence, upstream flood
control, erosion, regional ocean currents, variations in land height, and whether the land is still
rebounding from the compressive weight of Ice Age glaciers.
Sea level is primarily measured using tide stations and satellite laser altimeters. Tide
stations around the globe tell us what is happening at a local level—the height of the water as
measured along the coast relative to a specific point on land. Satellite measurements provide us
with the average height of the entire ocean. Taken together, these tools tell us how our ocean
sea levels are changing over time. (https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/sealevel.html)

Why is sea level rising? (reasons why sea level rise)

 The three main reasons warming causes global sea level to rise are: oceans expand, ice
sheets lose ice faster than it forms from snowfall, and glaciers at higher altitudes also melt. Sea
level rise in the last 150 years was dominated by retreat of glaciers and expansion of the ocean,
but the contributions of the two large ice sheets (Greenland and Antarctica) is expected to
increase in the 21st century. The ice sheets store most of the land ice (∼99.5%), with a sea-level
equivalent (SLE) of 7.4 m (24 ft) for Greenland and 58.3 m (191 ft) for Antarctica.
Each year about 8 mm (0.31 in) of precipitation (liquid equivalent) falls on the ice sheets
in Antarctica and Greenland, mostly as snow, which accumulates and over time forms glacial ice.
Much of this precipitation began as water vapor evaporated from the ocean surface. Some of
the snow is blown away by wind or disappears from the ice sheet by melt of by directly changing
into a gas. If the rest of the ice returns to the ocean as icebergs and from melting at the edges
then the icesheet remains the same mass and does not affect sea level. However scientists have
found that ice is being lost, and at an accelerating rate.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_level_rise)
 Over the past century, the burning of fossil fuels and other human and natural activities
has released enormous amounts of heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere. These emissions
have caused the Earth's surface temperature to rise, and the oceans absorb about 80 percent of
this additional heat.
The rise in sea levels is linked to three primary factors, all induced by this ongoing global
climate change:
 Thermal Expansion: When water heats up, it expands. About half of the past century's
rise in sea level is attributable to warmer oceans simply occupying more space.
Melting Glaciers and Polar Ice Caps: Large ice formations, like glaciers and the polar ice
caps, naturally melt back a bit each summer. In the winter, snows, primarily from evaporated
seawater, are generally sufficient to balance out the melting. Recently, though, persistently
higher temperatures caused by global warming have led to greater-than-average summer
melting as well as diminished snowfall due to later winters and earlier springs. This imbalance
results in a significant net gain in the ratio of runoff to ocean evaporation, causing sea levels to
rise.
Ice Loss from Greenland and West Antarctica: As with the glaciers and ice caps,
increased heat is causing the massive ice sheets that cover Greenland and Antarctica to melt at
an accelerated pace. Scientists also believe meltwater from above and seawater from below is
seeping beneath Greenland's and West Antarctica's ice sheets, effectively lubricating ice streams
and causing them to move more quickly into the sea. Higher sea temperatures are causing the
massive ice shelves that extend out from Antarctica to melt from below, weaken, and break off.
(https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/sea-level-rise/)
 The two major causes of global sea level rise are thermal expansion caused by warming
of the ocean (since water expands as it warms) and increased melting of land-based ice, such as
glaciers and ice sheets. The oceans are absorbing more than 90 percent of the increased
atmospheric heat associated with emissions from human activity.
(https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/sealevel.html)

When does it start to/going to rise? (time/date related to when sea level is rising)

 At least since 1880, the average global sea level has been rising. Between 1900 and
2016, sea level rose by approximately 16 to 21 cm (7-8 inch). More precise data gathered from
satellite radarmeasurements reveals an accelerating rise of 7.5 cm (3.0 in) from 1993 to 2017,
which is a trend of roughly 30 cm (12 in) per century. The acceleration is due mostly to human-
caused global warming, which is driving thermal expansion of seawater and melt of land-
based ice sheets and glaciers. The current trend is expected to further accelerate during the 21st
century.
Projecting future sea level is challenging, due to the complexity of many aspects of
the climate system. As climate research leads to improved computer models, projections have
consistently increased. For example, in 2007 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) projected a high end estimate of 60 cm (2 ft) through 2099, but their 2014 report
raised the high-end estimate to about 90 cm (3 ft). A number of later studies have concluded
that a global sea level rise of 200 to 270 cm (6.6 to 8.9 ft) this century is "physically
plausible". The contributing factors to sea level rise between 1993 and 2018 are thermal
expansion of the oceans (42%), melting of temperate glaciers (21%), Greenland (15%)
and Antarctica (8%).
The sea level will not rise uniformly everywhere on Earth, and it will even drop in some
locations. Local factors include tectonic effects and subsidence of the land, tides, currents and
 storms. Each Celsius degree of temperature rise is estimated to trigger a sea level rise of
approximately 2.3 metres (7 ft 7 in), but because of climate inertia this rise would happen over
the next two millennia.

Since the last glacial maximum about 20,000 years ago, the sea level has risen by more
than 125 metres (410 ft), with rates varying from less than a mm/year to 40+ mm/year, as a
result of melting ice sheets over Canada and Eurasia. Rapid disintegration of ice sheets led to so
called 'meltwater pulses', periods during which sea level rose rapidly. The rate of rise started to
slow down 8.2 thousand years before present; the sea level was almost constant in the last
2,500 years, before the recent rising trend starting approximately in 1850.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_level_rise)
 CORE SAMPLES, TIDE gauge readings, and, most recently, satellite measurements tell us
that over the past century, the Global Mean Sea Level (GMSL) has risen by 4 to 8 inches (10 to
20 centimeters). However, the annual rate of rise over the past 20 years has been 0.13 inches
(3.2 millimeters) a year, roughly twice the average speed of the preceding 80 years.
(https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/sea-level-rise/)
 Global sea level has been rising over the past century, and the rate has increased in
recent decades. In 2014, global sea level was 2.6 inches above the 1993 average—the highest
annual average in the satellite record (1993-present). Sea level continues to rise at a rate
of about one-eighth of an inch per year.
Higher sea levels mean that deadly and destructive storm surges push farther inland
than they once did, which also means more frequent nuisance flooding. Disruptive and
expensive, nuisance flooding is estimated to be from 300 percent to 900 percent more frequent
within U.S. coastal communities than it was just 50 years ago.
(https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/sealevel.html)
 Trends in sea-level from world-wide available tide gauge records and from satellite
measurements have been analysed by Church and White. The tide gauge data were corrected
for vertical land surface motion, by using estimates for glacial isostatic adjustment (assuming
that this is the major cause of vertical land surface motion). From these corrected tide gauge
data, a linear trend of 1.7 ± 0.2 mm/year sea-level rise was found for the period 1900 to 1990
and a linear trend of 2.8 ± 0.8 mm/year for the period 1990 to 2009. From the satellite data a
 linear trend of 3.2 ± 0.4 mm/year was derived for the the same perod 1990 to 2009. From this
analysis the authors conclude that there is a significant strengthening of sea-level rise during the
last decades.
(http://www.coastalwiki.org/wiki/Sea_level_rise)

How does it affect our lives? (the impact of sea level rise)

 Sea level rises can influence human populations considerably in coastal and island
regions, and natural environments like marine ecosystems. Widespread coastal flooding is
expected with several degrees of warming sustained for millennia. Further effects are higher
storm-surges and more dangerous tsunamis, displacement of populations, loss and degradation
of agricultural land and damage in cities.
Societies can respond to sea level rise in three different ways: retreat, accommodate
and protect. Sometimes these adaptation strategies go hand in hand, but at other times choices
have to be made between different strategies. Ecosystems that adapt to rising sea levels by
moving inland might not always be able to do so, due to natural or man-made barriers.
Current and future climate change is set to have a number of impacts, particularly
on coastal systems. Such impacts include increased coastal erosion, higher storm-surge flooding,
inhibition of primary production processes, more extensive coastal inundation, changes in
surface water quality and groundwater characteristics, increased loss of property and coastal
habitats, increased flood risk and potential loss of life, loss of non-monetary cultural resources
and values, impacts on agriculture and aquaculture through decline in soil and water quality,
and loss of tourism, recreation, and transportation functions.
Many of these impacts are detrimental — especially for the three-quarters of the
world's poor who depend on agriculture. Owing to the great diversity of coastal environments;
regional and local differences in projected relative sea level and climate changes; and
differences in the resilience and adaptive capacity of ecosystems, sectors, and countries, the
impacts will be highly variable in time and space. River deltasin Africa and Asia and small island
states are particularly vulnerable to sea-level rise.
Globally tens of millions of people will be displaced in the latter decades of the century
if greenhouse gases are not reduced drastically. Many coastal areas have large population
growth, which results in more people at risk from sea level rise. The rising seas pose both a
direct risk: unprotected homes can be flooded, and indirect threats of higher storm surges,
tsunamis and king tides. Asia has the largest population at risk from sea level with countries
such as Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam having very densely populated coastal
areas. The effects of displacement are very dependent on how successful governments will be in
implementing defenses against the rising sea, with concerns for the poorerst countries such as
sub-Saharan countries and island nations. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_level_rise)
 When sea levels rise rapidly, as they have been doing, even a small increase can have
devastating effects on coastal habitats. As seawater reaches farther inland, it can cause
destructive erosion, wetland flooding, aquifer and agricultural soil contamination, and lost
habitat for fish, birds, and plants.
 When large storms hit land, higher sea levels mean bigger, more powerful storm
surges that can strip away everything in their path.
In addition, hundreds of millions of people live in areas that will become increasingly
vulnerable to flooding. Higher sea levels would force them to abandon their homes and
relocate. Low-lying islands could be submerged completely.
(https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/sea-level-rise/)
 With continued ocean and atmospheric warming, sea levels will likely rise for many
centuries at rates higher than that of the current century. In the United States, almost 40
percent of the population lives in relatively high-population-density coastal areas, where sea
level plays a role in flooding, shoreline erosion, and hazards from storms. Globally, eight of the
world's 10 largest cities are near a coast, according to the U.N. Atlas of the Oceans.
Sea level rise at specific locations may be more or less than the global average due to
local factors such as land subsidence from natural processes and withdrawal of groundwater
and fossil fuels, changes in regional ocean currents, and whether the land is still rebounding
from the compressive weight of Ice Age glaciers. In urban settings, rising seas threaten
infrastructure necessary for local jobs and regional industries. Roads, bridges, subways, water
supplies, oil and gas wells, power plants, sewage treatment plants, landfills—virtually all human
infrastructure—is at risk from sea level rise.
(https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/sealevel.html)
 Sea-level rise will impact in particular on low-lying coastal regions, such as river deltas
and coral islands. These coastal zones are shaped under the influence of marine bio-
geomorphological processes which limit their elevation to the level of high-water. Many of these
regions are densely populated and host very large cities, especially in developing countries. In
these regions, sea-level rise is generally exacerbated by soil compaction and land subsidence in
connection with drainage works and the extraction of groundwater or oil / gas mining. The
vulnerability of many of these deltas is further enhanced by coastal erosion, because of
sediment retention behind upstream dams, hard coastal structures and/or conversion of
mangrove forests to aquacultures, see Human causes of coastal erosion. Considerable
investments are required for adaptation to sea-level rise in these vulnerable coastal regions, in
particular to reduce flooding risks.
Sea-level rise enhances shoreline retreat (for retreating coasts) or reduces shoreline
progradation (for accreting coasts), see Natural causes of coastal erosion. The influence of sea-
level rise on the shoreline position can be estimated by means of the Bruun rule. Sea-level rise
further threatens coastal wetlands, which may not be capable to keep pace with sea level and
be partly lost due to so-called coastal squeeze. This may be the case for mudflats and salt
marshes in the Wadden Sea and for mangrove forests in the tropics and subtropics,
see Potential Impacts of Sea Level Rise on Mangroves.
Salt intrusion is another major impact of sea-level rise in low-lying river deltas around
the world. This impact is compounded by soil subsidence and by reduced fresh water supply to
the coastal zone due to upstream diversion of river water for irrigation and other uses. Salt
intrusion threatens crucially important fresh groundwater reservoirs in arid regions, for example
in the Nile Delta. Relative sea-level rise also causes loss of fertile agricultural land in the coastal
hinterland by increased salt seepage to surface waters, with great economic and social
consequences. Salt intrusion may further affect drinking water availability in densely urbanized
coastal regions.
(http://www.coastalwiki.org/wiki/Sea_level_rise)