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The EPA offers extensive information on the potential effects of sea-level rise.

"Do We Need to Do Anything About Sea Level Rise Now?

The primary mission of the EPA Sea Level Rise reports has been identifying instances where it is rational to prepare now for the coastal consequences of climate change, even though most of those consequences are decades away--or more. The Overview Chapter in the 1984 publication Greenhouse Effect and Sea Level Rise: A Challenge for this Generation outlines the case for taking adaptive actions: At least some global warming and accelerated sea level rise are inevitable because of historic emissions, the inertia of the oceans, and the economy's current dependence on fossil fuels. (In the mid-1980s there was not yet a consensus that the global surface temperature is rising.) Therefore, communities and individuals will have to eventually adapt to consequences of global warming such as sea level rise. The primary question is whether to wait or take action now. The chapter on "...Before and After a Coastal Disaster" shows that the decision whether to rebuild after a coastal disaster might depend on whether property owners believe that they can rely on the government to fund efforts to hold back the sea. The Economics Chapter estimates the possible costs of sea level rise for Charleston and Galveston, and concluded that anticipating sea level rise could cut in half the eventual costs. In the Forward, EPA's original Administrator, William Ruckelshaus, points out that democracies often find it difficult to prepare for looming problems until a catastrophe occurs. "The ultimate danger is that by remaining reliant on "the catastrophe theory of planning" in an era producing catastrophes of a magnitude greater than in the past, we can place our institutions in situations where precipitate action is the sole option – and it is then that our institutions themselves can be imperiled and individual rights overrun."