Climate Change Could Mean Less Beaches and More Flooding for Hingham

Impassable roads and new flooding could be in Hingham’s future in the next few decades.

Monday night, the conservation commission and planning board got their first look at the effects of climate change in Hingham as part of a study from Kleinfelder of Cambridge.

Discussing the findings at a joint meeting between the two boards, Andrew Martecchini of Kleinfelder said a .66-foot increase in the sea level by 2030 could happen, with another two-foot increase possible by 2070.

An increase in the sea level would mean bad news for the Inner Harbor, George Washington Boulevard near Hull, and Broad Cove. In the event of a 100-year storm, those areas could flood to a much larger degree than it currently does and the roads would become unsuitable for driving.

If the study holds up, Hingham stands to lose nearly 100 acres of marsh, 200 acres of upland ground, and 26 acres of beach due to flooding around Route 3A to George Washington Boulevard and Rockland Street.

Other areas that would be vulnerable include the Mill Street Pump Station, Kimball’s Wharf, and the Foster School.

The models for the study looked at the one percent chance of a large storm hitting Hingham. The results shown were more applicable to a worse case scenario rather than a regular rain storm. The 100-year storm was used because it is the same model used by US Army Corps of Engineers to create insurance flood maps according to Martecchini.

Hingham is the fifth town to have the study done. Marshfield, Duxbury, Scituate, and Quincy have all completed a similar analysis with Hull to take on a study later this year.

For the trouble that could come to Hingham, Martecchini said that climate change will not have as much of an impact on Hingham as it could in Duxbury and Marshfield.