VANCOUVER—The extreme high tides inundating the west coast and flooding Vancouver beaches today may be mostly an inconvenience.

The king tides of the future, however, could bring “moments of terror,” said John Clague, the Canada research chair in natural hazards research based at Simon Fraser University.

As the sea level rises due to climate change, these extreme high tides could be catastrophic for Metro Vancouver shorelines, flooding the beaches and parks that form an important part of everyday life in the city for residents and visitors alike. For communities in low-lying areas, the consequences could be even more severe.

King tides happen when the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun on the Earth’s surface are at their height.

According to the City of Vancouver, typical high tide ranges from 3.4 metres to 4.3 metres above a government benchmark. During a king tide, the water level can reach 5 metres above the benchmark.

As the water levels reached their peak Wednesday, Angela Danyluk, a senior sustainability specialist with the City of Vancouver, stood across from Habitat Island along Vancouver’s False Creek.

“This is wild,” she said. “This is what 2050 will look like”

The rock foot path installed to allow people to cross over to the small island, even at high tide, was fully submerged.

The king tides of today show us that 30 years down the road, Vancouver may lose some of its recreation areas at high tide, Danyluk said.

The combination of rising sea levels, the king tides and stormy weather will put more pressure on coastal infrastructure as well.

“The shoreline is a really important place for all of us. Vancouverites are a coastal people; we live by the shore, and I can’t imagine a future without a vibrant, thriving shoreline,” Danyluk said.

There is a benefit to these harrowing visions of the future.

The king tides, which occur a couple times a year, highlight areas that are particularly vulnerable to the rising sea levels caused by climate change. In Vancouver, these include places such as Jericho Beach, areas along the Burrard Inlet and the land along the Fraser River.

Knowing which areas are most at risk means the city can plan for what’s coming. To help with this process, the city is asking residents to submit their photos to vancouver.ca/kingtides. The site allows people to see which areas are likely to be affected by rising sea levels and to see photos from recent king tide events.

Adapting to rising sea levels will require a combination of approaches, Danyluk said. In some cases it may mean raising buildings higher than they’re typically built now, reinforcing solutions like the seawall or pulling back from the shore.

It might also mean installing pumps to reduce the risk of basement flooding in low-lying areas and to help drain the rainwater collected in the storm water system into the ocean.

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Vancouver is not the only city at risk. Some hazard maps show areas such as Richmond could be below sea level by the end of the century.

“Richmond is obviously a high-risk area,” said Karina Reid, a mother of two who lives in the low-lying city. “I have major concerns about floods.”

She snapped a photo of flooding at an area called London Landing.

“I honestly have not seen it this bad,” Reid said.

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