Sea Level Rise
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Future sea level rise poses a high risk to the rapidly increasing population in many coastal location. Unlike heat waves, droughts, storms and river floods, which have severe impacts on local to regional scales, a significant sea level rise will have impacts at the global scales. A rapid sea level rise caused be a collapse of parts of the Greenland or Antarctic ice sheets would result in massive migration, catastrophic loss of production capabilities and coastal real estate, and unprecedented pollution of the ocean. It is hard to imaging how humanity would cope with such a massive global disaster impacting social, economic and ecological systems at an unprecedented scale.

There is an urgent need for a better assessment of the full range of plausible sea level rise trajectories at local and regional scales to enable responsible risk governance. The SLR VCC aims for a comprehensive overview of recent advances in observations of sea level changes from local to global scales as well as the driving processes for sea level changes from decadal to century time scales. Forecasting decadal sea level changes at local and regional scales is an urgently needed services for engaged in risk governance in coastal settlements and mega cities. The SLR VCC will consider advances in modeling to enable such a forecasting. Scenario studies can help to establishing the probability density function of future sea level rise from local to global scales, which is a crucial input for thorough risk assessments. Assessing the potential impacts of sea level changes on coastal areas is another central input for risk governance.

If you are engaged in sea level related research or a societal stakeholder engaged in one way or another in risk governance related to sea level rise, please, do join this VCC. We need you!

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News

SLR VCC News

[Apr. 19, 2026] Venice Soon Needs a Plan B or ...: Catherine Bennett reports in her article published in the Guardian and titled “‘We can’t wait’: Venice already seeking floods plan B five years after barriers’ launch” that sea level rise and the ecological damage caused by the increasing use of the “flood defense system” MOSE will very soon require additional measures. However, those interviewed for the article do not want to acknowledge that over a few more decades it will become unavoidable to accept that Venice is a lost cause.

[Mar. 31, 2026] Virginia Crossroads: Flood Resilience across the Commonwealth: The National Academy of Science organized on March 27, 2026 the climate event “Virginia Crossroads: Flood Resilience across the Commonwealth” in Charlottesville, Virginia. Most of the talking focused on the present and on money to tackle current problems, while a conversation about responsible risk governance for the future was absent. Read the NewsItem in the Newsroom.

[Mar. 04, 2026] Sea Levels are Already Higher Than Previously Estimated: In an article in The Guardian titled “Global sea levels have been underestimated due to poor modelling, research suggests&rdquo, Tara Russell discusses a new study “ Sea level much higher than assumed in most coastal hazard assessments” by Katharina Seeger Philip S. J. Minderhoud published in Nature. The authors reach the conclusion that average sea levels are 30 cm higher than thought globally, and up to 150 cm in south-east Asia and the Indo-Pacific. This establishes an urgent need to revise many risk assessments and efforts to develop coastal resilience.

Platform News

[Apr. 21, 2026] SlaveryToday VCC opened: The "Fighting Modern Slavery VCC" has been initialized and is open now.

[Apr. 19, 2026] Earth Energy Imbalance is Increasing Rapidly: Finally the extreme increase in the Earth Energy Imbalance (EEI) is slowly starting to make headlines - far too late, though. The article “ What are zettajoules – and what do they tell us about Earth’s energy imbalance?” by Jonathan Watts published in the Guardian explains some of the basics. Importantly, the EEI double within only 13 years. In another article by Watts also in the Guardian and titled “ Earth being ‘pushed beyond its limits’ as energy imbalance reaches record high” the author points out that the World Meteorological Organization warned that Earth is struggling with a record energy imbalance, which is warming the oceans to unprecedented levels, making weather more extreme and threatening health and food supplies. Considering that Earth is more like a pool house with a very large pool than a greenhouse, the ocean is only delaying the heating of the atmosphere but not preventing it.