FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND BUILT ENVIRONMENT

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL AND STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING

KKKH 4284 SUSTAINABLE URBAN PLANNING
________________________________________________________

TASK 6 : GLOBAL WARMING




LECTURER:
PROF. IR. DR. RIZA ATIQ ABDULLAH BIN O.K. RAHMAT
DR. MUHAMAD NAZRI BIN BORHAN
DR. NORLIZA BINTI MOHD AKHIR



NAME : NURUL SYAFINA AUNI BINTI SAMAD
MATRIC NO. : A132101
DEPARTMENT : JKAS/4

1.0 PROBLEM STATEMENT

Supposed you are living in a coastal city. The city administrator has noticed that the mean sea
level has been rising for the past 50 years. The raising is small but over a long period of time
it may cause problems in the city centre as the level of that part of the city is quite low. If you
are hired as a consultant, write a plan of action on what can be done to reduce or mitigate the
problems. Your report must include Mitigation and Adaptation measures.

2.0 INTRODUCTION

Mean sea level rising is not a new issue nowadays. Scientific research indicates sea levels
worldwide have been rising at a rate of 0.14 inches equivalent to 3.5 millimetres per year
since the early 1990s. The trend, linked to global warming, puts thousands of coastal cities,
for example Venice, Italy, and even whole islands at risk of being claimed by the ocean. Core
samples, tide gauge readings and most recently, satellite measurements tell us that over the
past century, the Global Mean Sea Level (GMSL) has risen by 4 to 8 inches. However, the
annual rate of rise over the past 20 years has been 0.13 inches a year, roughly twice the
average speed of the preceding 80 years.

The ocean doesnt rise steadily like water poured into a bathtub, instead there are
splashes and jiggles in its rise. Similarly, weather patterns like El Nino can shove tens of
centimetres of water up onto shores for months at a time, as they did in California in 1998.
Floods in Australia in late 2010 strangely resulted in water piling up on that continent,
robbing the oceans of enough water to lower global sea level by 7 millimetres for more than a
year. While the ocean grows, the land also shifts. It is basically linked to three primary
factors, all induced by this on going global climate change which are thermal expansion,
melting of glaciers and polar ice caps and ice loss from Greenland and West Antarctica.

Thermal expansion
When a substance is heated, its particles begin moving more and thus usually maintain a
greater average separation. Similar to the ocean water that will expands as it warms and it
simply takes up more room as it gets warmer. About half of the past centurys rise in sea
level is attributing to this factor.

Melting of glaciers and polar ice caps
Large ice formations, like glaciers and the polar ice caps, naturally melt back a bit each
summer. But in the winter, snows, made primarily from evaporated seawater, are generally
sufficient to balance out the melting. Recently, though, persistently higher temperatures
caused by global warming have led to greater-than-average summer melting as well as
diminished snowfall due to later winters and earlier springs. This imbalance results in a
significant net gain in runoff versus evaporation for the ocean, causing sea levels to rise.

Ice loss from Greenland and West Antarctica
Increased heat is causing the massive ice sheets that cover Greenland and Antarctica to melt
at an accelerated pace, as with glaciers and the ice caps. Scientists also believe meltwater
from above and seawater from below is seeping beneath Greenlands and West Antarcticas
ice sheets, effectively lubricating ice streams and causing them to move more quickly into the
sea. Moreover, higher sea temperatures are causing the massive ice shelves that extend out
from Antarctica to melt from below, weaken and break off.

Consequently, when sea levels rise rapidly, as they have been doing, even a small
increase can have devastating effects on coastal habitats. As seawater reaches farther inland,
it can cause destructive erosion, flooding of wetland, contamination of aquifers and
agricultural soils, and lost habitat for fish, birds and plants. In addition, hundreds of millions
of people live in areas that will increasingly vulnerable to flooding. Higher sea levels would
force them to abandon their homes and relocate. Even the low-lying islands could be
submerged completely.

This is what we are concern about for this case study. Even though the raising is small
but over a long period of time it may cause problems in the city centre as the level of that part
of the city is quite low. If sea level remains increases, a lot of people and also environment
will get affected in future due to this irresponsibility of human. Besides, this actually happen
because of the Earth climate has changed mainly due to human activities. This climate
change is related to the global warming that is caused by excessive quantities of greenhouse
gases emitted into Earths near surface atmosphere.


Basically, optimal amounts of naturally occurring greenhouse gases, especially water
vapour, are necessary to maintain the Earths temperature at inhabitable levels. Without
greenhouse gases, Earths temperature would be too cold for human and most other life.
However, excessive greenhouse gases cause Earths temperature to warm considerably which
cause major and occasionally catastrophic, changes to weather and wind patterns, and the
severity and frequency of various types of storms. No doubt, global warming affects the
environment, as well as humans and other creatures.

Ultimately, carbon dioxide and other global warming pollutants are collecting in the
atmosphere like a thickening blanket, trapping suns heat from radiated back toward space
and causing the planet to warm. This greenhouse gases are directly and indirectly generated
by mankind, though, have increased radically for the past 150 years and especially in the past
60 years. Many greenhouses occur naturally in the atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide,
methane, water vapour and nitrous oxide, while others are synthetic. Those that are man-
made include the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and
Perfluorocarbons (PFCs), as well as sulphur hexafluoride (SF
6
). As the global population has
increased and our reliance on fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas has been firmly
solidified, so emissions of these gases have been risen.

Sources of greenhouse gases

Carbon dioxide
A minor but very important component of the atmosphere, it is released through natural
processes such as respiration, and volcano eruptions and through human activities such
as deforestation, land use changes and burning fossil fuels. Through our interference
with the carbon cycle, we artificially move carbon from solid storage to its gaseous
state, thereby increasing atmospheric concentrations. Also, through research, the largest
manmade contributor to the greenhouse effect is carbon dioxide gas emissions, about
77 percent of which comes from the combustion of fossil fuels and 22 percent of which
is attributed to deforestation.



Water Vapour
Transpiration by plants is one of the main sources of water vapour in the air. Generally,
any form of water body on the earth including lakes, rivers and streams produce water
vapour because heat from the sun causes the water to evaporate. This is also an
abundant greenhouse gas, but it acts as a feedback to the climate. Water vapour
increases as the Earths atmosphere warms, but does the possibility of clouds and
precipitation, making these some of the most important feedback mechanisms to the
greenhouse effect.

Methane
A hydrocarbon gas produced both through natural sources and human activities,
including the decomposition of wastes in landfills, agriculture, and especially rice
cultivation, as well as ruminant digestion and manure management associated with
domestic livestock. On a molecule-for-molecule basis, methane is a far more active
greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, but also one which is much less abundant in the
atmosphere.

Nitrous oxide
A powerful gas produced by soil cultivation practices, especially the use of commercial
and organic fertilizers, fossil fuel combustion, nitric acid production and biomass
burning.

Chlorofluorocarbons
It is synthetic compounds of entirely of industrial origin used in a number of
applications, but now largely regulated in production and release to the atmosphere by
international agreement for their ability to contribute to destruction of the ozone layer.
It is also commonly used in refrigeration, cooling and manufacturing applications.

The increases of all these gases have contribute to the changing of natural atmospheric
greenhouse which led to global warming. It is difficult to predict the consequences of global
warming but definitely the rises of mean sea level had related to those things. Therefore, as a
consultant, I have come out with plan of action including mitigation and adaptation to reduce
this problem.
3.0 MITIGATION

In order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to enhance sinks aimed at reducing the
extent of global warming, it is involves taking actions. The mechanisms that reduce the
greenhouse effect can also be put to use in a mitigation effort. Several technologies to reduce
global warming have been developed and are being developed. Here are the strategies and
actions intended to limit future global warming.

First of all, the most important way to minimize the human contribution to climate
change is by lowering the emission of greenhouse gases. This could be done both by
developing more energy efficient ways of transport and by replacing fossil fuels with carbon
neutral biofuels. Otherwise, we can reduce air travel, motorized and transportation usage as it
contributes to the air pollution a lot. For that reason, we can expand public transportation
coverage in this area so that people will encourage to use it instead of using own transport.

Next, we can apply another effort to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases by
using nuclear power plant to replace coal plants. This technology seems to be a more clean
energy from a greenhouse gas perspective. Or else, we can remove greenhouse gases from the
atmosphere through what is known as carbon sinks. This method suitable to be used as this is
a coastal city and ocean would be the largest and most important part for carbon sink. There
is a non-biological process by which

is dissolved in the ocean and transported to great

depths. Then there is a biological process by which carbon is transported in organic material
to the ocean floor. We can also give some effort to plant more trees and reduce deforestation
as it can reduce the

content in atmosphere.

4.0 ADAPTATION

Even though humans do their best to mitigate global warming by reducing the emission of
greenhouse gases, there will be some degree of it in the future. It is therefore, necessary for us
to plan ahead and prepare for these changes. Humans and other living organisms have always
had to adapt to changing environments, but the changes by anthropogenic global warming are
expected to be more abrupt and on a bigger scale than anything else Earth has seen in modern
times. The scale and scope of global warming mean precautions and strategies are needed.
Hence, we will come out with the adaptation strategies of global warming.
Agriculture and Food Supply
Breed crop varieties that are more tolerant of heat, drought, and water logging from
heavy rainfall or flooding.
Protect live stock from higher summer temperatures by providing more shade and
improving air flows in barns.

Coasts
Promote shore protection techniques and open space preserves that allow beaches and
coastal wetlands to gradually move inland as sea level rises.
Identify and improve evacuation plans for low-lying areas, to prepare for increased
storm surge and flooding.

Ecosystems
Increase energy efficiency to help offset increases in energy consumption.
Harden energy production facilities to withstand increased flood, wind, lightning and
other storm-related stresses.

Human Health
Implement early warning systems such as heat alert system and emergency response
plans to prepare for changes in the frequency, duration and intensity of extreme weather
events.
Plant trees and expand green spaces in urban settings to moderate heat increases.

Water Resources
Improve water use efficiency and build additional water storage capacity.
Protect and restore stream and river banks to ensure good water quality and safe guard
water quantity.
Upgrading infrastructures elements such as sewer and drainage to overcome flooding
problem due to changing sea level.




5.0 CONCLUSION

All in all, to make sure all these plan of actions will be success in the future, we need to
provide and educate resident with complete information on the implementation of the
adaptation and mitigation strategies. Adaptation and mitigation will not be able to reach its
target without cooperation from peoples. Nevertheless, there are also limits to the ability to
adapt, for example, the relocation of communities or infrastructure may not be feasible in
many locations, especially in short term. Thus, people need to be preparing with the changes
made and get involve with every actions for the Earth future.