Woh Hup Distinguished Lecture:
Confronting Rising Sea Levels and the Swelling Risk of Coastal Flooding

Among the hazards associated with climate change, sea level rise presents scientists and policy makers with three special challenges. First, at a time when sea level rise and coastal flood probability are accelerating, the population and property values in coastal zones worldwide are increasing rapidly. Second, projecting sea level rise beyond the middle of this century entails rapidly increasing uncertainty due to our limited understanding of the dynamical behavior of the Antarctic ice sheet and, to a lesser extent, the Greenland ice sheet. Third is the common tendency to ignore large risks whose timing is uncertain until they manifest in highly damaging events, resulting in significant numbers of deaths and costly property damage. Accordingly, coastal planning often suffers from the “fighting the last war” syndrome, an approach to risk management that will fail in the face of a perpetually increasing hazard. 
 
Nevertheless, new approaches to managing risks and well-known policy options and measures for adaptation can significantly reduce exposure and vulnerability along the coast despite the expectation of a continuing rise in sea level throughout this century and beyond even in low-emissions scenarios. Implementing these will require not merely considerable expense but also a degree of foresight and ex ante action that, in many countries, has not yet characterized the coastal planning and protection process. Particularly under high-emission scenarios, at some locations where sufficient resources are lacking, retreat further inland will provide the only practical option. 

 Speaker Bio

Professor Michael Oppenheimer (Princeton University) 

He is the Albert G. Milbank Professor of Geosciences and International Affairs at the High Meadows Environmental Institute, and the Director of Center for Policy Research on Energy and the Environment of the School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University. He is also the Associated Faculty of Atmosphere and Ocean Sciences Program, Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies and Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment. 

Date: 25th July 2023, Tuesday
Time: 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM (SGT)
Venue: Engineering Auditorium, 9 Engineering Drive 1, College of Design and Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117575