Rising Sea Levels Cause Groundwater Issues in Hawai'i
Rocky Mudbutt writes:
Grace Mitchell Tada writes for the Hakai Magazine of Coastal Science and Societies about the damaging effects of rising groundwater due to changing sea levels. From the article
The coastal edges of Oahu were historically marshes and agricultural wetlands, situated above underground springs. When Westerners arrived in the late 18th century, they overturned the agricultural practices of the native Hawaiians who had taken advantage of the area's fluctuating water levels, raising fish along the shore and growing crops like taro in flooded fields bordering the ocean. By the mid-1800s, the Hawaiian government, in part encouraged by American trade interests, started dredging what is now Honolulu Harbor, facilitating easy passage of trans-Pacific deepwater sailing vessels. The dredged sediment was dumped in the tidelands and the nearshore area, forming new land just high enough to not flood. Today, this fill undergirds significant tracts of Honolulu's urban fabric, and areas built on the dredged fill are especially at risk of rising groundwater.
The article refers to the Hawaii Sea Level Rise Viewer which is an interactive tool funded by NOAA to examine sea level rise impacts.
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