Problem-Solution Report Assessment on Australia’s rising sea levels
Question
Task: can Problem-Solution Report Assessment technique identify possible solutions to Australia’s rising sea level?
Answer
Executive summary
This Problem-Solution Report Assessment explores global warming and the rising global sea level effect on Australian coastline and proposes possible solutions. Moreover, the aggressive tide was found to harm the socio-economic structure of native Australian communities dwelling on the coastline. Scientists and Australian authorities have tried to prevent it by building coastline infrastructure, but the drive to target its root cause has heavily remained under emphasis. Hence it has been recommended that global nations must collectively take a vow to work for carbon neutrality to reduce instances of ice sheet melting.
1. Introduction
Australia is expected to experience an on-going rise in the sea level in upcoming decades, and "high-resolution climate projections are on their way to inform quick adaptation." The Problem-Solution Report Assessment intends to highlight the problems and demonstrate pre-existing novel nature-based solutions which perhaps scientists are tapping to help the country defend its coastline. The study would also involve suitable solutions to enable the country to reverse the situation to a certain extent.
2. Problem
2.1 Socio-economic impact of rising sea level in Australia
Rising sea level not only creates nuisance on the physical coastlines but the coastal ecosystem. The intrusion of saltwater tends to be contaminating freshwater, adversely impacting agricultural and municipal supplies and natural ecosystems (climatehealthconnect.org, 2018). Apart from that, storms and surges of flooding tend not to be associated with the rise in sea level; they tend to increase the risk for drowning, displacement, and injury as per research performed during this Problem-Solution Report Assessment
Figure 1: Rising sea level of Australia
(Source: Schmidt, 2020)
Increased coastal storm flooding also raises risks of indoor mould growth from excess dampness with multitudes of respiratory diseases. Indigenous communities in Australia that ideally are associated with subsistence farming and fishing turn out to be vulnerable due to the reason of alleviation of sea level (climatehealthconnect.org, 2018). Communities associated with low income tend to face comparatively greater challenges from the food securities as an intrusion of saltine tends to disrupt the availability of surface and agriculture and safe water for consumption. Especially the low-income individuals, disproportionately who lack disaster insurance and often would lack the access to resources to "recuperate from the loss of property," which ideally places them at substantial risk for displacements and destabilisation from the food submergence related to the rise of sea level (climatehealthconnect.org, 2018).
2.2 Identified cause of the rising sea level in Australia
The Problem-Solution Report Assessment research identified that in warmer climates, the sea level has been continuously rising decade after decade, and around the Australian coastline, the sea level has "risen relative to the land throughout the 20th century with a relatively faster rate since 1993" (science.org.au, 2020). Sustained global warming leads to near the complete loss of the ice of the Greenland sheet, contributing to over 7 meters to the global average level of sea rise. The rising magnitude would continue to increase depending on the rate of global warming, and it would also depend on the rate of melting glaciers or ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland. Excessive carbon dioxide emission is a natural adverse, and the ion of the gas tends to deplete ice sheets; hence overpopulation, over-application of intrusive carbon vehicles, and transportation system are to be blamed for such degradation.
3. Solution proposed on this Problem-Solution Report Assessment
3.1 Solution 1
Sediments are among the primary solution to withstand the aggression of high sea levels, and as identified by Smith et al., (2020), "Natural habitats protect shorelines in several ways. This includes adding roughness and shallow areas that cause a reduction in wave height and wave breaking, as well as the accretion and stabilisation of sediments". However, finding during the Problem-Solution Report Assessment research show they are preventive measures that, to a minimum extent, can help authorities defend coastal lands. As influenced by Hens et al., (2018), in line with the novel nature-based solutions, major draw cards are cheaper, and they bestow several co-benefits like improving quality of water and improving quality of water.
3.2 Solution 2
Another solution being deployed is the building of seawalls to decrease the flood and high tides, which can prevent five to six feet of tides above the level of the sea. "When seawalls age or become damaged from constant exposure to saltwater or the impact of waves, they need to be replaced" (Zehro, 2021). Similar to the sea walls, dunes and beaches can act as natural walls and prevent the high tide and aggression of rising sea levels from grasping the coastal lines.
4. Conclusion
It has been identified on this Problem-Solution Report Assessment that, like many other islands and peninsulas, Australia is suffering as an aftermath of the global melting of ice sheets and glaciers. Sea level rise and the damage to socio-economic lucidity concerning the community it did so far in Australia have been daunting. However, in line with the novel nature solution spurred by scientists, the act of building sea walls and sea beaches as a barrier to the high tides can only serve it for the next decade as it has not been targeted as the root cause of sea-level rise to be the melting of ice sheets.
5. Recommendation
Recommendations are as follows
Scientists, in combination with the national government, must strengthen the global campaign of declining carbon emissions, drastically reducing the usage of CFC and CO2 (Ciconkov, 2018). A massive collaborative multi-institutional campaign should be formed to achieve the goals of SGD to make use of sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels such as solar energy and wind energy. This would restrict the emission of harmful carbon, and neither would it contribute to global warming and the melting of glaciers and ice sheets.
Ideally, to bolster the local level precautions approach, roads throughout the coastline would be made higher than the coastline; not only that, upgrading the internal sewage system would help as water from the high tide can be drawn in the multiple small swages and canals (Hens et al., 2018). It not only would help in neutralising the risk of high tide to be affecting the coastline, but the local community can engage in fishing and making edible salt with the water drawn from the internal canal. Irrigation would have been much easier if farmers were given the technology to use it after refining it for different purposes as finding show from the Problem-Solution Report Assessment.
6. References
Ciconkov, R., 2018. Refrigerants: There is still no vision for sustainable solutions. International Journal of Refrigeration, 86, pp.441-448.
Climatehealthconnect.org, 2018, Sea Level Rise, Climate Change and Health, Available at:https://climatehealthconnect.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/SeaLevelRise.pdf,[Accessed on: 21th May 2022]
Hens, L., Thinh, N.A., Hanh, T.H., Cuong, N.S., Lan, T.D., Van Thanh, N. and Le, D.T., 2018. Sea-level rise and resilience in Vietnam and the Asia-Pacific: A synthesis. Vietnam Journal of Earth Sciences,Problem-Solution Report Assessment, 40(2), pp.126-152.
Science.org.au, 2020, How are sea levels changing? Available at:https://www.science.org.au/learning/general-audience/science-climate-change/6-how-are-sea-levels-changing,6. [Accessed on: 21th May 2022]
Smith, C.S., Rudd, M.E., Guttmann, R.K., Melvin, E.C., Patterson, V.S., Renzo, J.J., Wellman, E.H. and Silliman, B.R., 2020. Coming to terms with living shorelines: a scoping review of novel restoration strategies for shoreline protection. Frontiers in Marine Science, 7, p.434.
Sophie Schmidt, 2020, Rising sea levels in Australia may demand novel solutions. Available at:https://ecos.csiro.au/sea-level-rise-how-do-we-best-prepare/ [Accessed on: 21th May 2022]
Zehro, K., 2021. Specifications and types of seawall structures needed to protect beaches from sand erosion and storm disasters. International Journal of Advanced Engineering, Sciences and Applications,Problem-Solution Report Assessment, 2(1), pp.13-18.
