When Faced with the Challenge of Coastal Resilience, Some Cities Rise Above

Abstract

Sea level rise is a daunting environmental issue which coastal U.S. cities will have to confront in the coming years. Sea levels along the coast of the United States are projected to rise on average 10-12 inches in the next 30 years, and over two feet by 2100. Despite this significant, scientifically established threat, many cities are not developing a policy response to sea level rise, or implementing actual mitigation plans. This thesis rules out the political environment as an explanation for the variance in response among coastal cities and sought to identify other potentially determinative factors. The factors examined were relative population size compared to the state, relative total GDP of a city compared to their state, and media representation of sea level rise in each of the seven cities. To address the potential factor of media representation I conducted an original content analysis, classifying each article written in the given city on sea level rise into one of seven categories. There is very little existing literature on political response to sea level rise, due to its novelty as a political issue. The main goal of this thesis was to build theory for the issue to help inform further research. Ultimately, this thesis found that the economic importance of a city relative to the state where it is located, as well as size of the city’s total GDP, seem to influence the extent to which that city has prepared for sea level rise. Further research should be conducted on the relationship between economic concerns regarding sea level rise and its influence on the policy initiatives of local and federal politicians.