Against the Tide

Many of the world’s largest cities are near the ocean, and more than 600 million people live within 10 meters of sea level. A lot of hard-to-replace infrastructure—ports, power plants, transmission lines, oil refineries, sewage treatment facilities, telecommunications cables, and highways—have been built close to the water. As glaciers melt and warmed waters expand in volume, that infrastructure will be threatened. In the face of this relentless tide, engineers are looking at what can be done.