It has been suggested that climate change across the globe will significantly impact on coastlines everywhere. Cape Town’s 307km of coastline are no exception, a study done by the City of Cape Town and consultants has said that our coast lines are particularly vulnerable.

Cambridge university hosted a seminar in Cape Town where Stockholm’s Environmental Institute economist Anton Cartwright spoke of sea levels rising by 15cm by 2020 and by two thirds of a metre by the end of the century. This rise will have a knock on effect, not only causing the frequency and intensity of storms around the coast line to increase, but also rendering current flood defences useless during these storms.

These findings have concluded in a risk assessment stating that in 25 years there is an 85% probability of 60.9km2, or 2% of the metro area being cover by sea for a short period. The estimated real estate loss is set at R20 billion

Gregg Oelofse of the Environmental Resource Management at the City of Cape Town believes there are a number of things that can be done to help reduce the risk of coastal storms.

Firstly, the natural coastline of the area should be protected and all coastal or strip development stopped. The highly developed coastline of the Cape Peninsula is hindering the coastlines natural ability to recover after storm events.

“A healthy natural coastline is the best defence against storms and, thus, it should be preserved and maintained,” elaborates Oelofse.

Similarly, he believes that it is necessary to increase investment into the maintenance of the natural coastline.

He also believes that short term economic decisions and benefits should be put to one side and a longer term plan for protecting the coastline put into place which takes priority.

Oelofse also states that it is necessary to start putting together a framework that will allow the City of Cape Town to make long-term sustainable choices.

Most significantly, Oelofse states that it is essential that the City of Cape Town builds and retains a coastal managements skills pool, as, currently, the local government employs no coastal engineers.

The City of Cape Town’s is at present incorporating this research into their planning legislation and using it in the defining and upholding of a coastal buffer zone.

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Been there before
written by Stephen , October 28, 2009

This is not something new and has happened before during times of warming and is part of a cyclic natural event and should thus be left alone although through our greed and stupidity we may have sped things up abit. In anycase, man cannot stop or slow down the warming and as such all the predictions and bunny hugging stuff is a waste of time....

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Coastal management
written by Ken , October 27, 2009

Is there any chance at all of getting government to take this seriously and actually create some skill pools? Dune management is probably the first criteria and currently there is little or no understanding of this critical tidal zone.Certainly none in the realm of local councils with coastlines to maintain. Development has been allowed well within the migratory zone of dunes and as a result entire beaches are destabilised.

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Thought provoking
written by LifeisSavage , October 22, 2009

Nice article. Would be interesting if someone could represent the data graphically. Like a map of Cape Town showing the effects of a rise in sea level. Especially the Atlantic seaboard. I'd love to know where the new coastline of Camps Bay would be for example.

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Ooish
written by Gordon , October 22, 2009

Yip, wouldn't buy any coastal property!

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life's a beach
written by myphotographer , October 22, 2009

Places like Strand and adderley street come to mind - you've seen the old pics of these areas, right?

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