On this episode of What About Water? we take a look at the state of our rising seas from space, and learn what coastal communities on the ground are doing to adapt.

Jay speaks with long-time colleague Steve Nerem, a principal investigator on NASA’s Sea Level Change team.  

We learn that by 2100, we could see around one meter of global sea level rise, but there is still time to stop the worst-case scenarios for future generations.

We also hear from Matt Osler about the City of Surrey’s Coastal Flood Adaptation Strategy and how researchers, First Nations, and municipalities in Southwest British Columbia are working together through the Living with Water project. 

Steve Nerem is a professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He is a principal investigator on NASA’s Sea Level Change team. He is also the associate director of the Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research. His current research focuses on predicting global sea level rise and regional variations using satellite altimetry data from NASA missions such as TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason-1, Jason-2 and the soon-to-be-launched Jason-3. He also uses data from the satellite gravity mission GRACE and eventually the GRACE-Follow On mission. He received his Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and has worked as a geophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and as an associate and assistant professor at the University of Texas, Austin.

Matt Osler is a Senior Project Engineer in the Drainage Section at City of Surrey.  He joined the Engineering Department in 2006 and currently oversees the implementation of the City’s Coastal Flood Adaptation Strategy.  He completed a Master of Business Administration from Simon Fraser University.