Will Hull still be here in 100 years?

Experts warn
rising sea levels could wipe city off the map
Dr Hugh Ellis says cities such as Hull may be wiped off the map in 100 years time
Warned local authorities are not taking issue of rising sea levels seriously
Says planners need to think about moving populations away from coast

An expert has warned that rising sea

levels could cause cities such as Hull
to be wiped off the map on the east
coast of England due to coastal
erosion.

Dr Hugh Ellis, head of policy at the

Town and Country Planning
Association (TCPA), warned that
local authorities are not taking the
crisis of rising sea levels seriously,
which could see water rise by around
four foot.

And he said that if local councils do not get together with the Department of Communities to
work on a national plan on the crisis of climate change, Hull in East Yorkshire may not exist in
100 years time.

Speaking at the Hay Festival, Dr Ellis said: 'There are one or two people in the Department for
Communities and Local Government who are looking at this, but most are planning for a 60cm
line 18 rise by 2100 but the science tells us that it is going to be at least double that.

'We need to think about moving populations and we need to make new communities. We need
to be thinking, does Hull have a future? 'Quite clearly that is the kind of planning we need to
start and have conversations about. There is no central intelligence on this issue.'

Dr Ellis's comments come after it was predicted earlier this year that hundreds of homes will
disappear from the East Yorkshire coast over the next century, as more properties fall victim
line 24 to the rampant coastal erosion attacking the coastline. More than 200 homes are predicted to
slip over the cliff edges between Flamborough Head, near Bridlington, and Spurn Point, 45
miles further south, in the next 100 years.

The coastline has moved around 12 miles in the last 10,000 years and currently retreats at an
average of up to two metres a year.

This varies from location to location, though, and yearly losses of more than 18 metres in some
places are not unknown.

Nationwide, nearly 7,000 properties in England and Wales will be allowed to fall into the sea
this century, according to more research. The homes and buildings - worth more than 1billion
combined - are expected to be victims of coastal erosion because that is much cheaper than
protecting them, according to experts. More than 800 of these properties will go in the next 20
 years, and homeowners living in them now face the prospect of being forced to move to a safer
area with no compensation scheme in place.

Meanwhile a study by Harvard University in January revealed that sea levels have risen faster
line 38 than expected in the last 20 years as a result of global warming.

Since 1990 global sea levels have risen by about 3mm (0.12 inches) annually as the ice caps and
glaciers melt because of rising temperatures.

By Jennifer Newton for Mailonline, 2015