Naval Support Activity Annapolis (NSAA) and the United States Naval Academy (USNA) hosted a two-day sea level rise planning workshop at the academy, Nov. 4 and 5.

Personnel from Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Naval Support Activity Annapolis, U.S. Naval Academy and the city of Annapolis, Maryland, gathered to establish a vision and courses of action to protect NSAA and USNA against coastal flooding, sea level rise and storm water impacts.

“We needed to get the team together because we’ve done enough studies,” said Rear Adm. Carl Lahti, commandant, Naval District Washington. “It’s time now to start dedicating resources to planning and taking action. If we don’t get the design done, the informed analysis done, we’re not going to get there. And we have to start doing it today because every year we wait is a year where it just gets worse.”

In July, the Naval Academy’s Sea Level Rise Advisory Council presented a report to Superintendent Vice Adm. Sean Buck, outlining nuisance flooding and extreme flooding the academy will face over the next few decades. The report suggests a possible 14-inch sea level rise by 2050, which could result in near daily flooding events at USNA.

“The mitigation needs to start now,” said Buck. “It has to happen in the next four years. I want to walk away off my watch knowing that the government committed money in the budget toward executing your plan. We need to have that plan to address sea level rise.”

Over the course of the workshop, attendees discussed NSAA/USNA vulnerabilities and engaged in group exercises aimed at developing long-range adaptation action alternatives.

“Sea levels have been rising about a foot per century,” said Dr. Emil Petruncio, member of the Sea Level Rise Advisory Council. “What we’ve seen is an increase of about a half a foot in the past 25 years and that is consistent with observations around the Chesapeake Bay.”

“What we are here for is to establish a long-term vision and adaptation measures at various locations across the Naval Academy – and that could include abandoning, adapting or armoring (those locations). We are coming up with a prioritized list of options and we will be revisiting the science every four or five years,” said Petruncio.

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