By Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center – excerpt
A new model that combines sea-level rise scenarios and information about associated groundwater level responses shows that coastal water tables will rise as groundwater levels are pushed up by landward intrusions of seawater due to sea-level rise.
A new paper, “Increasing threat of coastal groundwater hazards from sea-level rise in California,” published in Nature Climate Change on August 17, 2020, describes a numerical model that estimates the depth of the present-day coastal water table and the future response of these groundwater levels to a range of sea-level rise scenarios for the entire California coast. The new USGS publication uses projected sea-level rise scenarios to assess the potential threat these higher groundwater levels pose for related hazards along the California coastline. Projected sea-level rise and storms could result in coastal flooding causing severe threats to communities, infrastructure, the economy, and natural resources…(more)