Discussion of J.A.G. Cooper, C. Lemckert, Extreme sea level rise and adaptation options for coastal resort cities: A qualitative assessment from the Gold Coast, Australia, Ocean & Coastal Management, In Press, Accepted Manuscript, Available online 18 Apri

In a recent article, Cooper and Lemckert discussed the opportunity to experience extreme sea level rise in Gold Coast, Australia. The authors outlined the potential impacts of 1 m, 2 m and 5 m potential sea level rise (SLR) on the Gold Coast assuming that current occurrences of surges, cyclones and rainfall are superimposed on these. The suggestion from their contribution was that planning a 2 m SLR might just be accommodated and without it a 1 m SLR could not. The study unfortunately focuses on the sea level rise issue actually not that dramatic in a region conversely periodically affected by severe floods still far from being properly addressed. At the current rate of rise of sea levels for the region, properly assessed at about 1 mm/year with no detectable component of acceleration in perfect agreement with the worldwide average, the 1 m, 2 m and 5 m scenarios may be projected very far from now in time and therefore should not be of concern now. This comment holds for all the papers with the unrealistic expectation of SLR up to 5 m within few years.