“The Conference will include participation on-site but will also utilise state-of-the-art remote participation options to ensure inclusion and engagement.”
Leading climate experts from around the world will share the latest science behind sea level projections.
Leading climate experts from around the world will share the latest science behind sea level projections.
Sea-level rise is an existential threat to coastal residents around the world as it progressively raises water levels, promoting increased flooding, erosion, salinization and ecosystem loss and degradation. Small islands, deltas and coastal cities are particularly threatened. Future sea-level rise is deeply uncertain with the worst scenarios of rise linked to the great ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica and their response to global warming. Unmitigated climate change will lead to rapidly accelerating rise with a metre of rise by 2100 appearing likely and larger rises possible. Once initiated, sea levels would continue to rise for many centuries with catastrophic consequences. Hence, climate mitigation is critical. However, even the climate mitigation and temperature stabilisation targets agreed in the Paris Agreement will slow but not stop climate-induced sea-level rise due to the long timescales of ocean and ice sheet response to warming. Hence, sea-level rise is expected to continue slowly for centuries, even if the Paris Agreement is fully implemented.
Building on the success of the Sea Level 2017 Meeting in New York, the World Climate Research Program (WCRP) Grand Challenge on “Regional Sea-Level Change and Coastal Impacts” will hold the Sea Level 2022 meeting in Singapore. It will assess the current understanding of these challenges and what actions and approaches in both the science and adaptation practitioner domains are needed to meet them. The meeting comes three years after the publication of the IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC) and one year after the publication of the new IPCC WG1 AR6 report, providing a good moment for reflection. Sea Level 2022 will critically assess the different components of sea-level change to understand their likely magnitude under the range of possible emissions over the 21st Century and beyond. It will also consider the key uncertainties that need to be addressed in future research with a view towards AR7 and beyond. Given the critical need for coastal adaptation it will also consider how to effectively make this information available and most useful to the coastal policymakers and practitioners engaged in risk assessment and adaptation, drawing on contributions from practitioners engaged in adaptation planning today.
The conference is held in a region where sea-level rise is an existential threat. Singapore is an island where one third is below 5 m above mean sea level today. More broadly, south, south-east and east Asia contain most of the world’s vulnerable coastal population and the needs for coastal adaptation are immense. Hence, information on future sea levels is critical for coastal development, adaptation and planning. Sea Level 2022 is a global conference engaged with the world community, but it recognises a particular need to benefit these vulnerable populations in Asia and other settings such as deltas and small islands.
Stakeholders will share the state of practice and identify paths forward to protect lives, property, and natural systems.
Stakeholders will share the state of practice and identify paths forward to protect lives, property, and natural systems.
Local, regional, and national governments around the globe are concerned about sea-level rise (SLR) over the 21st century and will need to plan adaptation responses that suit local circumstances in terms of costs, uncertainties, and ensuring protection of vulnerable communities. In response, adaptation practitioners are tasked with understanding which scientific projections of future SLR to use in planning efforts. These projections each present their own challenges and layers of uncertainty. In addressing this challenge practitioners must contend with significant and unprecedented economic and social challenges posed by inevitably rising seas and think about this changing dynamic in the context of short-term challenges, including the impacts of extreme events, erosion, and non-climate phenomena such as subsidence, and groundwater withdrawal.
There is growing interest from coastal practitioners around the world in engaging with sea-level scientists to discuss and understand what the science can provide and share what risk and adaptation assessment require to make progress. This interest is fragmented, however, and lacks mechanisms to facilitate the engagement. Sea Level 2017 in New York strongly focussed on the application of sea-level rise to understand risk and adaptation needs. Sea Level 2022 goes further and seeks to actively engage with the sea-level practitioner community around the world to promote dialogue on sea-level science, promote co-production of future sea-level science, and to place science products in an appropriate context. This includes considering current activities at a local and regional level to evaluate vulnerability and design adaptation measures to create resilience in the face of climate change.
This conference practitioner contribution builds on an a virtual three-day global workshop series held in February 2022 with approximately 75 attendees from 29 counties. This event was held twice to allow truly global attendance. It was designed to build connections and learning among practitioners using SLR projections in adaptation planning in a variety of contexts (e.g., open coasts, small islands, deltas, natural infrastructure, urban vs. rural, etc.). It shared examples of early action to implement adaptation to rising seas and developed an understanding of common challenges.
Participants brought practical perspectives from around the world. Key themes for presentations and discussions were identified with a preparatory survey and included:
The results and recommendations of the workshop feed into Sea Level 2022. As well as sharing knowledge and perspectives we will gauge interest in the establishment of collaborative networks both within the practitioner community and between practitioners and researchers that can provide sustained peer support and learning and collaboration so that practitioners are better able to prepare shorelines and communities for rising seas.
Take part in an exciting programme of field trips to coastal locations in and around Singapore.
If you're an Early Career Researcher, especially from Southeast Asia, you will be eligible for a grant to attend the conference.
“The Conference will include participation on-site but will also utilise state-of-the-art remote participation options to ensure inclusion and engagement.”
Opening Address by Minister Ms Grace Fu
Detlef Stammer (WCRP): WCRP’s Commitment to Sea-level Research
Hazel Khoo (PUB, Director Coastal Protection): Coastal Adaptation in Singapore
Aurel Moise (MSS/CCRS): Overview of Singapore’s National Sea Level Program
Noelle O’Brien (Asian Development Bank, Manila): Sea-level Rise as a Development Challenge: the ADB Perspective
Ben Horton (Director, Earth Observatory of Singapore): Sea-level Research in Southeast Asia
Plenary Oral Session:
Invited talk: Cunde Xiao, Beijing Normal University: IPCC Working Group 1 Sea Level Chapter
Invited talk: Alex Robel, School of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology: Why are projections of the future Antarctic contribution to sea level so high?
Invited talk: Roderik van de Wal, Utrecht University: Grand Challenge High-end Sea Level Rise
Invited talk: Judy Lawrence, New Zealand Climate Change Commissioner: IPCC State Of The Art Working Group 2
Plenary Oral Session:
Invited talk: David Behar, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission: A Practitioner Perspective
Invited talk: Daniella Hirschfeld, Utah State University: Global Survey: What Sea Level Information Is Used Today?
Invited talk: Joseph Intsiful, Green Climate Fund: Global Adaptation Needs On The Coast
Plenary Oral Session:
Adaptation Leading Practices
Invited talk: Arthur Webb, UNDP: Island state perspective
Invited talk: Munsur Rahman, IWFM: Deltas
Invited talk: Anh Cao, University of Tokyo, Japan: Cities
Plenary Oral Session:
Examples from work in Singapore and Southeast Asia:
Singapore Response of Southeast Asia’s mangroves to sea-level rise
Singapore Coral recorders of past sea-level change in Sentosa, Singapore
Singapore Holocene sea-level science in Singapore
Plenary Oral Session:
WCRP and sea-level change from WCRP Safe Landing.
Plenary Oral Session:
Synthesising Day 1: both science and practitioners.
What is needed in the next 10 years for practitioners and scientists?
Plenary Oral Session:
Invited talk: Angélique Melet, Mercator Ocean International, France
Invited talk: Miguel Esteban, Research Institute of Sustainable Future Society, Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering of Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan
Speakers:
Poster session:
Plenary Oral Session:
Invited talk: Natasha Barlow, University of Leeds, UK: The Paleo sea level perspective.
Invited talk: Andrew Lloyd, Columbia, USA: The role of the solid Earth in ice sheet and sea level evolution.
Speakers:
By David Behar, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission; Co-Chair, WCRP Sea Level Rise Grand Challenge
Plenary Panel Session:
Adaptation planning starts with the science, but that science is complex, ever-changing, and uncertain. How is sea-level science used today in planning, what challenges do practitioners face in that use, and how are coastal climate services evolving to better connect “actionable science” to on-the-ground action?
Invited talk: Adam Parris, Deputy Director for Climate Science and Data Services, New York City, USA
Invited talk: Abby Sullivan, Senior Advisor for Climate Science and Risk Communication, City of Philadelphia, USA
Invited talk: Gordon Smith, Director of Planning, Province of Nova Scotia, Canada
Plenary Panel Session:
We are beginning to see adaptation action, i.e. measures implemented on-the-ground to maintain or create resilience to rising seas. This session will include jurisdictions that have put in place adaptation measures to sea-level rise and describe how they got there.
Invited talk: Nobuyuki Tsuchiya, Japan Riverfront Research Center, Tokyo, Japan
Invited talk: Thao Nguyen Danh, Vice President, Ho Chi Minh City University, Vietnam
Invited talk: Katherine Hagemann, Resilience Program Manager for Adaptation, Miami-Dade County, USA
Invited talk: Ivan Haigh, University of Southampton/I-STORM, United Kingdom
Plenary Panel Session:
Context matters in responding to sea-level rise. Our first panel presenting approaches to the development of adaptation programs will feature case studies drawn from small island contexts.
Invited talk: Erin Derrington, Office of Planning, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, USA
Invited talk: Anthony Kiem, Asian Development Bank, Australia
Invited talk: Zahirul Hacque Khan, Institute of Water Modeling, Bangladesh
Plenary Panel Session:
Context matters in responding to sea-level rise. Our second panel presenting approaches to the development of adaptation programs will feature case studies drawn from large cities.
Invited talk: Felipe Cerbella Mandarino, City Information Coordinator, Instituto Pereira Passos, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Invited talk: Karen Partington, Environmental Systems Services Manager, City of Lake Macquarie McQuarie, Australia
Invited talk: Chai Teck Ho, Deputy Director, Public Utilities Board, Singapore
Plenary Oral Session:
Speakers:
Plenary Oral Session:
Invited talk: Harry Zekollari, ETH, Switzerland: Sea-level contribution from glaciers on decadal to multi-centennial time scale.
Invited talk: Miren Vizcaino, TUD, The Netherlands: Advanced, coupled simulations of Greenland ice sheet surface mass balance, ice flow and global climate evolution.
Invited talk: Thomas Frederikse, JPL, USA: The sea level budget.
Speakers:
Plenary Oral Session:
Invited talk: Xuebin Zhang, CSIRO, Australia: Ocean warming and sea-level rise.
Speakers:
Plenary Oral Session:
This is the final session (part 1) – to facilitate the fully hybrid approach, we will also have an online document where all registered participants can write during the conference their views and comments – speakers will need to look at this before their presentation on Friday and may wish to discuss with others during the conference. The document will remain open until the following Monday to facilitate input from other time zones.
25 minutes plenary discussion, starting with WCRP representatives (Heiko Goelzer, early career scientist)
Chaired by Roderik van de Wal
Speakers: Ivan Haigh, Kathy McInnes, Tamsin Edwards (10 minutes each)
Plenary Oral Session:
This is the final session (part 2) – to facilitate the fully hybrid approach, we will also have an online document where all registered participants can write during the conference their views and comments – speakers will need to look at this before their presentation on Friday and may wish to discuss with others during the conference. The document will remain open until the following Monday to facilitate input from other time zones.
25 minutes plenary discussion, starting with WCRP representatives and others (Silvina Solman, Jochen Hinkel, early career scientist)
Chaired by Bart van den Hurk
Speakers: David Behar, Robert Nicholls, Marjolijn Haasnoot (10 minutes each)
Plenary Oral Session:
Conference closing by by Roderik van de Wal.
Marina Bay Sands is a premier entertainment destination with its vibrant diversity of attractions and facilities. The vision was to build an integrated development that is timeless, a landmark that possesses a distinct identity which distinguishes Singapore from other cities.
Located along the Marina Bay waterfront, Marina Bay Sands features three cascading hotel towers topped by an extraordinary sky park, ‘floating’ crystal pavilions, a lotus-inspired Museum, retail stores featuring cutting-edge labels and international luxury brands, trendy Celebrity Chef restaurants, endless entertainment at the theatres, the hottest night clubs and a Las Vegas-style casino. Business visitors will also enjoy the extensive Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) facilities featuring state-of-the-art technology, highly flexible exhibition halls, and a convention centre that can host over 45,000 delegates.
Marina Bay Sands seamlessly combines business and leisure into a singular destination unlike any other.
Only available for Day 3.
Only available for Day 3.
Limited financial assistance is available for ECS and scientists from the Global South and practitioners a case-by-case basis. More information via the registration button above.
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