“The study makes a compelling argument that a changing climate may produce more historic-level floods in the region, and that the conditions that led to the 1993 floods may become a new normal,” said Boulter. “In one way or another, policy responses are inevitable. The question is do we do them now in a proactive way or do we do them much later in a reactive way, at which point they will be much more expensive and much more intrusive.”