NASA data helps the international community cope with rising sea levels

Global sea level rise is affecting coastal communities everywhere, threatening infrastructure and livelihoods. Governments and agencies are working hard to help people prepare for this severe environmental change, and NASA data is playing a key role in this process.

First, NASA's global data is now available through the Sea level section of the Earth Information Center. NASA worked with the U.S. Department of Defense, the World Bank, the U.S. State Department and the United Nations Development Program, among others, to develop a Global Sea level Change website. The platform covers global sea-level rise projections for coastlines up to 2150 and provides estimates of the flood risk that coastal areas are likely to face within the next 30 years. These projections are based on observational data from NASA and its partners, computational models of ice sheets and oceans, and the latest sea level assessments from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and other authoritative organizations.

Second, NASA's innovations are designed to benefit all of humanity. Its advanced instrumentation and data-driven tools help communities and organizations prepare for extreme weather and natural disasters and provide critical information for planning and decision-making on coastal infrastructure. For example, organizations such as the World Bank are using data from the Global Sea Level Change Platform to develop climate risk analyses for countries that are particularly vulnerable to sea level rise.

The Department of Defense also incorporates this data into its response measures to anticipate and respond to the potential impact of rising sea levels on military installations. The State Department is also using the data to drive activities ranging from disaster response to long-term resilience planning, and to support partners around the world in their efforts. At this critical juncture in the fight against climate change, science has clearly become the cornerstone of decision-making. With many parts of the world already dealing with the challenges posed by rising sea levels, NASA's new resources provide important support to protect lives and livelihoods. This tool highlights the gap that coastal communities across the globe face in a 1.5C warming world and under current policy trajectrajectory.

In addition, data released earlier in 2024 showed that sea levels in Pacific island countries are expected to rise by at least 6 inches (about 15 centimeters) over the next 30 years. By the 2050s, the frequency of high tide flooding in these island states is expected to increase by an order of magnitude. These data clearly show that global sea levels are rising rapidly and developing an effective response is more urgent than ever.

Finally, NASA-led data analysis shows that 96 percent of coastal countries have experienced sea level rise from 1970 to 2023, and the rate is accelerating. Since 1993, the rate of global sea level rise has increased from 0.08 inches (about 0.21 cm) per year to about 0.18 inches (about 0.45 cm) by 2023. This means that millions of people will be affected by higher storm surges, seawater intrusion into groundwater and high tide flooding earlier than previously predicted. High tide flooding, or vicious flooding, has become a common threat. The new platform provides coastal countries around the world with visual data on future flood frequency and water level rise, demonstrating how science is linked to human security and livelihoods.

Taken together, NASA, through its Earth observation satellites and socio-economic survey data, presents a comprehensive picture of the potential impacts of sea level rise on cities, coastal areas, and other developed regions, as well as the types of populations and communities that could be affected. NASA data gives us unprecedented detailed insight into changes in the Earth system, and through data visualization, this complex information is vividly presented, making Earth science accessible and impactful.