Rising sea levels could flood a fifth of Surrey, B.C.

With roughly 20 per cent of land in Surrey, B.C., sitting on a coastal floodplain threatened by climate change, the city is preparing for rising water levels that could severely damage residential neighbourhoods, businesses, natural habitats and infrastructure. Work is underway on a Coastal Flood Adaptation Strategy that will help determine what kind of mitigation work needs to be done immediately and what can be put off into the distant future, Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner told the CBC. Large swaths of farmland, 400 homes, transmission lines, gas pipelines, public parks, beaches and countless habitats for wildlife all sit on the floodplain, and damage to roads and highways could jeopardize the estimated $25 billion in truck and rail freight traffic that passes through the affected area each year