Germany's coastal regions brace for change, fearing rising sea levels

A devastating storm surge in October 2023 showed rising seawaters affect the North Sea coast as well as regions on the Baltic alike, and many remember the extensive damage to the Baltic Sea coast of Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern back then.

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The rising coastal waters will worsen storm surges as forecasters say they will become higher and more frequent in future. Even in the past, flooding was always one of the greatest threats to coastal residents. More than 1,000 years ago, settlers built the first earthen walls to protect themselves from the floods. Over the centuries, coastal residents developed an effective system of dikes, sluices and drainage channels to protect themselves from storm surges.

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People are still laboring to improve dike construction, using computer models and wave channels. The climate dikes being built on the North Sea coast are wider and can be raised if necessary. The German Environment Ministry says the highest climate dikes in Lower Saxony will reach about 10 meters above sea level.

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The German Meteorological Society (DMG) and the German Physical Society (DPG) recently made a different proposal on how to address sea level rise. At the Extreme Weather Congress in Hamburg in September, professional associations issued a joint appeal to political actors to mull retreating from low-lying coastal regions on the North Sea and Baltic Sea as part of adapting to climate change.