Last Sunday’s “Remaking of Kapiolani Boulevard” article revealed a range of concerns and anticipation among stakeholders (Star-Advertiser, Insight).

Missing, however, was any reference to climate change impacts, including sea level rise. I’m writing simply to fill the void.

Sea level rise is the inevitable consequence of warming the oceans and accelerated melting of Earth’s ice sheets. It is a measurable, trackable and relentless reality. NASA satellites measuring both Greenland and Antarctica reveal they lose more than 400 billion tons of ice each year. Satellites also show that the rate of global sea level rise has accelerated.

Sea level rise is a real problem; it erodes beaches. Surveys reveal that the majority of tourists who underpin our economy would not bother coming if Waikiki Beach disappeared. The state, city, private sector, nonprofit groups and others are engaged in a vigorous discussion about how to keep the beach in place, and are willing to spend millions of dollars on the effort.

These problems have not yet landed in Kakaako. But make no mistake, sea level rise is an uncompromising truth that threatens the long-term viability of urban Honolulu. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

As hundreds of millions of dollars are invested in re-making the face of Kakaako, let’s redevelop in a way that increases sustainability and resilience.

Adapting to sea level rise will require a coordinated effort of unprecedented commitment. The city of Miami Beach provides a model. It has already re-engineered its urban corridor to adapt to nuisance ocean-flooding that comes with sea level rise. It has raised roads, replaced storm drains with an integrated network of pumps and valves, installed silt collection technology to clean flood waters before discharging back into the ocean, and more. Innovative policies in Miami require first floors of new buildings to be raised; its land-use planning is based on maps for 2020 and 2030 that show the extent of sea level rise flooding.

As urban Honolulu is revitalized, there are many design elements that are available that will save energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and keep the new towers livable in a future of declining rainfall, hotter temperatures, episodes of intense rain, and ocean flooding.

As Kakaako is redeveloped, we can be part of the solution to stopping global warming before it reaches dangerous proportions. Climate change threatens socio-economic systems worldwide, and failure of climate- change mitigation and adaptation is now considered the No. 1 global risk.

In the new towers, install energy-efficient appliances that draw less electricity, implement design elements that maximize shade and natural airflow, use “green” building materials, utilize power from non-carbon sources, build in electric-vehicle charging stations, easy recycling and roof-top gardens. A more sustainable Kakaako can be an engineering and architectural reality, but developers must decide they want to go that route since the legal framework does not yet exist to force their hand.

There are many aspects of climate change that are unavoidable. Global warming over the past century means heat extremes that previously occurred only once every 1,000 days are happening four to five times more often. Even with dramatic carbon cuts, sea level rise will continue for centuries. Severe El Nino events, and the larger, wetter tropical cyclones they bring, are expected to double in frequency.

Let’s design with this hazardous future in mind so that when they occur, these events are less disruptive, and we can recover faster and more cheaply.

The impacts of climate change in Hawaii and globally are well known. Communities around the world are implementing new design standards to increase resilience in the face of climate change threats. Likewise, I hope that designers of the new Kakaako will help us become a more sustainable and resilient community.

Charles “Chip” Fletcher is a professor of geology and geophysics at the University of Hawaii-Manoa, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology.