Rising sea levels threaten Vancouver airport: Senate [Video]

Rising sea levels could prove catastrophic for Vancouver International Airport, according to a new report from the Senate of Canada looking at the risks climate change poses to critical infrastructure across the country.

The committee report released last week, titled Urgent: Building Climate Resilience Across Canada’s Critical Transportation Infrastructure, includes four case studies that represent different climate-related challenges: the Chignecto Isthmus between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, Canada’s North, the Great Lakes St. Lawrene Seaway, and Vancouver’s airport and marine port.

For Vancouver’s people-and-goods movers, the key threats are flooding brought on by rising sea levels and increased precipitation, as well as earthquakes, according to the report.

YVR, Canada’s second-busiest airport, is built on Richmond’s Sea Island in the Fraser River and is surrounded by a dike system that protects it from flooding and erosion.

Putting that system at risk is the fact that sea level rise is predicted to be more than a metre by 2100 in B.C. and extreme precipitation is expected to …