The sea level rise adaptation planning push is gaining speed with new studies in Portland, Maine and Coastal Louisiana.

The Portland Study was requested by the City Council and conducted by the Maine Geological Survey.  The study summary is HERE and some press on the effort can be found HERE.  It is important to note that Maine was the first state with a coastal sea level rise adaptation study - done in 1995!.

The Louisiana study is a much larger effort involving myriad local, regional, and federal agencies as well as economic and community interests along the coast.  Coastal Louisiana has lost ~1,800 square miles of land since the 1930's and is also losing its coastal ecosystem and the storm surge protection it affords.

Of special note in the Louisiana study are the cost estimates - from $20 to $50 BILLION to implement the strategy over the next 50 years.  This is just the start of calculations of the cost of adaptation, something we're going to have to start worrying about as more of these studies come in.