*The Portland waterfront. It’s a favorite port for cruise ships plying waters between New York, the Maritime Provinces and Quebec in the summer and fall.*

From Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com

City planners in Portland, Maine, have come up with some interesting ideas for adapting that city’s waterfront, much of it a real “working waterfront’’ (fishing boats, etc.), to rising seas. Their proposed Coastal Resiliency Overlay Zone would, The Portland Press Herald reports, let developers “build taller buildings in those areas if they prove the additional height is being used to prepare for sea-level rise and storm surges associated with a changing climate.’’

Design of such buildings would include “the elevation of the first floor above highest adjacent grade building design that allows for future modification of the ground elevation.’’ And in some cases, “the new rules would allow developers to build an extra floor.’’

Of course, some people whose view of the water might be limited by higher buildings would complain, but Portland’s planners are just being realistic. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) projects that some now low-lying areas of Portland might be under a under a foot of water at normal high tide in 2100, but 6 to 10 feet underwater when high tide and storm surge combine, probably during a Nor’easter.

To read the Press Herald story, please hit this link.

To look at NOAA’s “Sea Level Rise Viewer’’ please hit this link.