Climate change is causing sea levels to rise, posing an unprecedented threat to coastal communities and infrastructure from coastal flooding and other hazards. The impact of sea-level rise on coastal shallow groundwater and subsequent impacts on infrastructure assets is a challenge that is not well understood. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with infrastructure engineers, asset managers and climate adaptation scientists from city- to regional-scale government organisations to capture their understanding of shallow groundwater impacts and adaptation responses to these current and anticipated issues in New Zealand. The study shows that groundwater already poses challenges to infrastructure asset managers. These issues are saltwater intrusion, flooding, increased liquefaction hazard, vulnerability of stormwater, wastewater management, drainage systems and coastal protection and long-term planning and financing. Climate change and sea-level rise will exacerbate these current and future issues. A key issue is who will take responsibility for shallow groundwater management in the face of new challenges from growing climate risks. This study highlights current approaches to manage groundwater variability will continue to be applied in future adaptation strategies. Further, groundwater monitoring and infrastructure asset management approaches to adaptation are limited less by technical understanding and more by political and economic considerations.

中文翻译：

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从业者对海平面上升对浅层地下水影响的看法：对基础设施资产管理和气候适应的影响


气候变化导致海平面上升，沿海洪水和其他灾害对沿海社区和基础设施构成了前所未有的威胁。海平面上升对沿海浅层地下水的影响以及随后对基础设施资产的影响是一个尚未得到充分理解的挑战。与来自城市到区域级政府组织的基础设施工程师、资产管理者和气候适应科学家进行了半结构化访谈，以了解他们对浅层地下水影响的理解以及对新西兰当前和预期问题的适应反应。研究表明，地下水已经给基础设施资产管理者带来了挑战。这些问题是盐水入侵、洪水、液化危险增加、雨水脆弱性、废水管理、排水系统和海岸保护以及长期规划和融资。气候变化和海平面上升将加剧这些当前和未来的问题。一个关键问题是，面对日益增长的气候风险带来的新挑战，谁将负责浅层地下水管理。本研究强调，当前管理地下水变化的方法将继续应用于未来的适应战略。此外，地下水监测和基础设施资产管理适应方法较少受到技术理解的限制，而更多地受到政治和经济考虑的限制。