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FROM VOLUME 5, NUMBER 1, JANUARY 1992

PROFESSIONAL PUBLICATIONS...
SEA LEVEL POLICY AND SCIENCE

Item #d92jan21

"Local Government and Public Adaptation to Sea Level Rise," R.J. Burby (Ctr. Urban Studies, Univ. North Carolina, Chapel Hill NC 27499), A.C. Nelson, J. Urban Planning & Develop.--ASCE, 117(4), 140-153, 1991.

Discusses the predictions of accelerated sea level rise, the range of possible policy responses, the extent to which local governments and the public perceive and respond to threats of sea level rise, and the need for research into the factors determining cognition and response.

Item #d92jan22

"Man, Water and Global Sea Level," B.F. Chao (NASA-Goddard, Greenbelt MD 20771), Eos, p. 492, Nov. 5, 1991. Presents a brief, documented argument that management of water resources (impoundments, irrigation, etc.) has had an appreciable impact on sea level, contributing to a decrease estimated at 0.7 mm/yr.

Item #d92jan23

"Global Sea Level Rise," B.C. Douglas (Nat. Ocean Serv., NOAA, Rockville MD 20852), J. Geophys. Res., 96(C4), 6981-6992, Apr. 15, 1991.

The scatter in published values for long-term, global sea level rise results not from instrument error but from using data taken near convergent tectonic plate boundaries, and from varying effects of post-glacial rebound. By avoiding the former cases and removing the latter effect through modeling, a consistent estimate of sea level rise over the period 1880-1980 of 1.8 mm/yr ± 0.1 was obtained. Results provide confidence that carefully selected records show the same long-term trend, and that many old tide gauge records are of high quality.

Item #d92jan24

"A Model of Sea Level Rise Caused by Ocean Thermal Expansion," J.A. Church (CSIRO Div. Oceanog., GPO Box 1538, Hobart, TAS 7001, Australia), J.S. Godfrey et al., J. Clim., 4(4), 438-456, Apr. 1991.

The model is based on a mechanism in which heat enters the ocean by an advection process, rather than by vertical diffusion, as in previous estimates of thermal expansion. For a global mean 3.0° C temperature rise by the year 2050, it estimates sea level rise by thermal expansion of 0.2-0.3 m, or about 0.35 m when melting of the cryosphere is included.

Item #d92jan25

"Interannual Coherence between North Atlantic Atmospheric Surface Pressure and Composite Southern U.S.A. Sea Level," G.A. Maul (Atlantic Lab., NOAA, 4301 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami FL 33149), K. Hanson, Geophys. Res. Lett., 18(4), 653-656, Apr. 1991.

Prompted by recent interest in detecting anthropogenic signals in sea level trends, the authors examined the interannual component of annual mean sea level data from 15 stations, to determine links to atmospheric fluctuations as a basis for reducing variance. The best correlation was negative between composite sea level and wintertime air pressure north of 45° N, but positive from 20° N to 45° N.

Item #d92jan26

"Earthquakes and Sea Level: Space and Terrestrial Metrology on a Changing Planet," R. Bilham (CIRES, Univ. Colorado, Boulder CO 80309), Rev. Geophys., 29(1), 1-29, Feb. 1991.

Summarizes several measuring techniques developed in the past two decades that offer great improvement in the ability to measure sea level rise and changing volume of glacial ice, in addition to crustal deformations associated with earthquakes. They include VBLI (very long baseline interferometry), SLR (satellite laser ranging), and GPS (global positioning system).