PARTS OF SHELBURNE TOWN WOULD BE UNDER WATER WITH A 3.4 METRE SEA RISE OR STORM SURGE
Nova Scotia is about to get wet. Very wet.
Jen Graham of Halifax’s Ecology Action Centre and a team of volunteers are using Google Earth technology to put the province underwater.
Their aim: to show the impact climate change will have on sea level over the coming century.
“I don’t think anyone else (in Canada) is doing it this systematically,” said Graham, who has served as coastal coordinator at the EAC for the past seven years.
Since late January, Graham has posted more than 20 photos online under the hashtag #DrownNS of what various sections of Nova Scotia’s coastline would look like under between one and four metres of water.
According to Graham, that estimate is a conservative one coming from the International Panel on Climate Change.
“Most other coastal jurisdictions have started to deal with climate change.
“Everyone else is doing it. … Nova Scotia is falling behind.”
The project was inspired by Andrew Thaler, a marine biologist and science fiction writer who first developed the technique to better visualize rising sea levels in his city of San Francisco.
Thaler began tweeting photos of flooded international cities in late 2013 under the hashtag #DrownYourTown, which went viral.
Back in Nova Scotia, Graham said some of the results took her by surprise.
“If you’re flooding say Yarmouth, the water floods up the East River, so it doesn’t only do a little bend by the harbour. It goes up the river and floods that laterally,” she said.
“That really surprised me, seeing how far inland these impacts extended.”
In Shelburne, a 3.4 metre sea rise or sturm surge would inundate many of the Town's most famous landmarks, all of Dock Street and portions of Water Street. At least the first floor of many harbourfront buildings would be flooded, including the Yacht Club, Marina & Osprey, Sailing School (Muir-Cox), Sea Dog, Cox Warehouse, Dory Shop, Shelburne County Museum, Totties, Tourist Bureau, Town Public Works Building, Barrel Factory, Little People's Place Daycare, Matthew Dripps House, Coopers' Inn, Bean Dock and McDonough House.
The damage would be substantial. If it was sea level rise, most of the buildings would be forever uninhabitable.
Shelburne and other towns and municipalities have recently completed Municipal Climate Change Adapation Plans MCCAP), designed to identify climate change hazards and issues, which include sea rise, flooding and coastal erosion..
The guide to MCCAP produced by government was designed to help municipalities to develop a clearer understanding of the ways in which climate change will impact the daily management and operation of communities; and for municipal councils to assign priorities to climate change issues with the potential to adversely affect the social, economic, environmental and cultural elements of communities.
Another objective was to help municipalities to build greater capacity at the local level, so that solutions are tailored to match local circumstances, and potential courses of action can be implemented and controlled by municipal councils.
Ultimately, Graham said her project aims to raise awareness and conversation around climate change.
“I feel that both provincially and nationally both our governments are doing us a disservice,” she said.
