Summit makes business case for big spending on resiliency

The Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council’s resiliency summit on April 5-6 in St. Petersburg painted a grim picture of the region’s future if leaders don’t get serious about the effects of climate change, particularly flooding brought on by rising sea levels.

High-tide flooding in areas around Tampa Bay is already twice as likely today as it was 20 years ago, according to William Sweet, an oceanographer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association who spoke at the summit. And with sea levels forecast to rise by at least one foot over the next three decades, the problem will only get worse, so much so that we can expect moderate flooding up to four times per year by 2050.