I’m a mountain-liking guy not a beach-liking guy so rising sea levels doesn’t hit me with quite the gut punch as, say, the disappearance of winters. Not so for people who own property along New Hampshire lovely, if short, coastline, who are seeing more flooding not associated with storms, and more damage when storms do arrive.

UNH Extension has developed tools to help them determine their risk, as they report in this article.

“I now have a ‘punch list’ of suggestions to think about and implement, from simply installing a sump pump to continuing to pursue flood insurance to revisiting our landscaping to improve on drainage from the house,” Tager says. These recommendations can be very different for each landowner.

I suspect one of the biggest problems coastal areas will struggle with is seawater infiltration of freshwater aquifers. When your well suddenly becomes too salty to drink, all the drainage and pylons and sump pumps in the world won’t help you.