One college takes steps to protect itself from rising sea levels

What can a campus do in response to the climate crisis? The United States Naval Academy just offered one course of action.

The main thing the Maryland-based USNA is doing it repairing and extending the Farragut Field Sea Wall, according to an official statement. “The project aims to repair and raise the height of the seawall to address daily high tides and minor storms out to the year 2100.”

The project includes repairs to the sheet pile bulkheads along Farragut Field and the southeast side of Santee Basin. A new sheet pile wall will be constructed outboard of the existing one. A new tieback system will be constructed inland of the existing for lateral stability. The project will provide critical structural protection for the Naval Academy against floods and future sea level rise.

There’s more to come: “Future plans include adding earthen berms to protect the Naval Academy from storm surge[s].”

And, according to the secretary of the Navy:

“This sea wall is the first in a series of climate-related improvements from the Naval Academy’s comprehensive Installation Resilience Plan that I am personally committed to,” said Del Toro. “And this is just one achievement among many more past, present, and future.”

Calls and plans to do something along these lines date back at least to 2019. I’ve written about this in Universities on Fire (now available for pre-order).