Feds: Coastal Building Must Anticipate Climate Change

President Barack Obama has issued an executive order directing all government agencies handing out federal aid to incorporate stricter building requirements that take sea-level rise into account. The move is aimed at making residents in coastal areas safer from storms like Sandy, as well as ensuring that taxpayer money is spent wisely.
Planners and environmentalists have long lamented that the FEMA flood maps -- which dictated the construction standards for Sandy victims rebuilding along the coast -- only considered historical flood damage in requiring them to build to the 100-year flood height (a flood that has a 1 percent chance of occurring annually), but did not take into account future risks pertaining to climate change or potentially more severe storms.