"When rising waters from superstorms like Katrina or Sandy inundate heavily populated coastal communities, vast numbers of people will abandon their destroyed homes and flee for safety and shelter elsewhere.
Where will they go — and how will their destination cities cope with them?
That’s the focus of a new study that projects as many as 13.1 million Americans could become climate refugees by the end of this century, an influx of people that could stress inland cities, particularly those already grappling with population growth, urban development, traffic congestion, and water management.
“We typically think about sea-level rise as a coastal issue, but if people are forced to move because their houses become inundated, the migration could affect many landlocked communities as well,” said Mathew Hauer, a demographer at the University of Georgia and author of the study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change. “For many inland areas, incorporating climate change scenarios into their strategic long-range planning would be an appropriate strategy.
While other research has assessed sea-level rise with the goal of planning critical infrastructure to protect fragile populated coastlines, this study is believed to be the first to model the destinations of millions of displaced coastal migrants.” TP
https://thinkprogress.org/sea-level-...d-d5f9e995c8bd
Interesting study.