The USACOE has issued new guidance and will have to account for rising sea levels under a new federal policy aimed at shoring up the region's main line of defense against climate change. The new guidance applies to all phases of Corps planning, including “managing, planning, engineering, designing, constructing, operating, and maintaining USACE projects and systems of projects.”
It's the first comprehensive policy by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to require that projects under its jurisdiction be designed with higher sea levels in mind.
Failure to consider this increase in new coastal structures – such as buildings, water intakes and wastewater outfalls – could mean these investments are jeopardized later, or that people are put at risk.
The new policy is a stand-alone document that describes how engineers should design for sea level rise. The authors included scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and U.S. Geological Survey. While the policy does not specify a water depth, it does lay out a procedure engineers must follow to estimate low, medium and high sea level projections for their area.