Overview
- A peer‑reviewed Nature Communications paper released Nov. 20 projects more than 5,500 hazardous facilities at risk of a 1%‑annual‑chance coastal flood by 2100 under a high‑emissions scenario.
- Nearly 3,800 facilities are projected to face flooding by 2050, indicating much of the near‑term risk is already locked in from past emissions.
- Florida, New Jersey, California, Louisiana, New York, Massachusetts and Texas account for about 80% of the projected at‑risk sites.
- The threatened infrastructure is dominated by fossil‑fuel ports and terminals (44%), power plants (30%), refineries (24%) and coastal sewage treatment plants (22%).
- A lower‑emissions pathway would spare roughly 300–362 sites by 2100, and researchers released public interactive maps and datasets to guide mitigation and adaptation planning.