David Holland and his team of researchers at NYU Abu Dhabi's Center for Global Sea Level Change are trying to figure out how melting ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland will influence global sea level. Since many of the world’s cities are built at sea level or slightly above it, rising seas will reshape the coastlines as we know them today.

Since many of the world’s metropolises are built at sea level or slightly above it, rising seas will reshape the coastlines of cities as we know them today. “When glaciers melt in Greenland and Antarctica, they raise sea level and that information spreads around the globe in about a week,” Holland noted. “There is no correct place to study this issue. It’s a global problem with global connections."

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