Preface

We spend much of our time studying sea-level science, a wide-ranging and constantly fascinating subject. We analyse data, read and write papers, and present findings at conferences where there are people in the same sea-level community as us. However, every so often we get to meet other people who have been exposed to this subject in a more personal way: someone who lost relatives in the 1953 North Sea storm surge, another who lost everything more than once in Bangladesh floods, a colleague who survived the 2004 Sumatra tsunami.

We remember at a conference of sea-level experts in the Maldives some years ago a small boy holding a homemade poster declaring ‘Down with sea-level rise’, as he feared for the future of his country. Concern about possible global warming and sea-level rise has rarely been expressed as simply or as effectively. These examples remind us that the results of our work are important, not just for the scientific papers that are produced, but also for many practical reasons, which somehow we find reassuring.