Sea level rise is the single-most important environmental concern for residents and visitors of the Outer Banks.

Over geologic time spans great changes have occurred and will continue to occur in the world's sea level. The Earth has been under the influence of a warming trend for the past 14,000 years. Between 14,000 and 7,000 years before the present, the sea rapidly rose and the shoreline retreated some 50 miles from the edge of the Continental Shelf (Milliman and Emery 1968:1121-1123).

Since that period, the sea has continued to rise, but at a decreasing rate. In the recent past, sea level has risen an average of a foot a century. The critical importance of sea level is its relation to shoreline change. Bruun (1962:193) developed a method of equating rates of shoreline recession with the annual rise in sea level. Applying this method, the shoreline of the Outer Banks should be receding between 4 and 6 feet per year. These figures agree with estimates made by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1948 (Dolan 1971:177-180).