Reforming state-level coastal management and development policies: strategic retreat as an innovative, proactive and equitable coastal environmental management strategy

Atlantic and Gulf Coast shorelines include some of the most unique and biologically rich ecosystems in the United States that provide immeasurable aesthetic, habitat and economic benefits. Natural coastal ecosystems, however, are under increasing threat from rampant and irresponsible growth and development. Once a boon to local economies, complex natural forces – enhanced by global climate change and sea level rise - are now considered hazards and eroding the very foundation upon which coastal development is based. For nearly a century, beach restoration and erosion control structures have been used to artificially stabilize shorelines in an effort to protect structures and infrastructure. Beach restoration, the import and emplacement of sand on an eroding beach, is expensive, unpredictable, inefficient and may result in long-term environmental impacts. The detrimental environmental impacts of erosion control structures such as sea walls, groins, bulkheads and revetments include sediment deficits, accelerated erosion and beach loss. These and other traditional responses to coastal erosion and storm impacts- along with archaic federal and state policies, subsidies and development incentives - are costly, encourage risky development, artificially increase property values of high-risk or environmentally sensitive properties, reduce the post-storm resilience of shorelines, damage coastal ecosystems and are becoming increasingly unsustainable. Although communities, coastal managers and property owners face increasingly complex and difficult challenges, there is an emerging public, social and political awareness that, without meaningful policy reforms, coastal ecosystems and economies are in jeopardy. Strategic retreat is a sustainable, interdisciplinary management strategy that supports the proactive, planned removal of vulnerable coastal development; reduces risk; increases shoreline resiliency and ensures long term protection of coastal systems. Public policies and management strategies that can overcome common economic misperceptions and promote the removal of vulnerable development will provide state and local policy makers and coastal managers with an effective management tool that concomitantly addresses the economic, environmental, legal and political issues along developed shorelines. (PDF contains 4 pages)

Reforming state-level coastal management and development policies: strategic retreat as an innovative, proactive and equitable coastal environmental management strategy

Atlantic and Gulf Coast shorelines include some of the most unique and biologically rich ecosystems in the United States that provide immeasurable aesthetic, habitat and economic benefits. Natural coastal ecosystems, however, are under increasing threat from rampant and irresponsible growth and development. Once a boon to local economies, complex natural forces – enhanced by global climate change and sea level rise - are now considered hazards and eroding the very foundation upon which coastal development is based. For nearly a century, beach restoration and erosion control structures have been used to artificially stabilize shorelines in an effort to protect structures and infrastructure. Beach restoration, the import and emplacement of sand on an eroding beach, is expensive, unpredictable, inefficient and may result in long-term environmental impacts. The detrimental environmental impacts of erosion control structures such as sea walls, groins, bulkheads and revetments include sediment deficits, accelerated erosion and beach loss. These and other traditional responses to coastal erosion and storm impacts- along with archaic federal and state policies, subsidies and development incentives - are costly, encourage risky development, artificially increase property values of high-risk or environmentally sensitive properties, reduce the post-storm resilience of shorelines, damage coastal ecosystems and are becoming increasingly unsustainable. Although communities, coastal managers and property owners face increasingly complex and difficult challenges, there is an emerging public, social and political awareness that, without meaningful policy reforms, coastal ecosystems and economies are in jeopardy. Strategic retreat is a sustainable, interdisciplinary management strategy that supports the proactive, planned removal of vulnerable coastal development; reduces risk; increases shoreline resiliency and ensures long term protection of coastal systems. Public policies and management strategies that can overcome common economic misperceptions and promote the removal of vulnerable development will provide state and local policy makers and coastal managers with an effective management tool that concomitantly addresses the economic, environmental, legal and political issues along developed shorelines. (PDF contains 4 pages)

The impacts of coastal protection structures in California’s Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary

This report outlines the potential impacts of coastal protection structures on the resources of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. At least 15 miles of the Sanctuary’s 300-mile shoreline are currently armored with seawalls and riprap revetments. Most of these coastal protection structures are placed above the mean high tide line, the official boundary of the Sanctuary, yet some influences of armoring impinge on the marine realm and on recreational use. In addition, continued sea level rise and accompanying coastal retreat will force many of these structures below the high tide line over time. The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary staff has recognized the significance of coastal armoring, identifying it as a critical issue in the Coastal Armoring Action Plan of the draft Joint Management Plan. This summary is intended to provide general background information for Sanctuary policies on coastal armoring. The impacts discussed include: aesthetic depreciation, beach loss due to placement, access restriction, loss of sand supply from eroding cliffs, passive erosion, and active erosion. In addition, the potential biological impacts are explored. Finally, an appraisal of how differing armor types compare in relation to impacts, expense and engineering is presented. While the literature cited in this report focus predominantly on the California coast, the framework for this discussion could have implications for other actively eroding coastlines. (PDF contains 26 pages.)

Coastal erosion as a natural resource management problem: An economic perspective

Unremitting waves and occasional storms bring dynamic forces to bear on the coast. Sediment flux results in various patterns of erosion and accretion, with an overwhelming majority (80 to 90 percent) of coastline in the eastern U.S. exhibiting net erosion in recent decades. Climate change threatens to increase the intensity of storms and raise sea level 18 to 59 centimeters over the next century. Following a lengthy tradition of economic models for natural resource management, this paper provides a dynamic optimization model for managing coastal erosion and explores the types of data necessary to employ the model for normative policy analysis. The model conceptualizes benefits of beach and dune sediments as service flows accruing to nearby residential property owners, local businesses, recreational beach users, and perhaps others. Benefits can also include improvements in habitat for beach- and dune-dependent plant and animal species. The costs of maintaining beach sediment in the presence of coastal erosion include expenditures on dredging, pumping, and placing sand on the beach to maintain width and height. Other costs can include negative impacts on the nearshore environment. Employing these constructs, an optimal control model is specified that provides a framework for identifying the conditions under which beach replenishment enhances economic welfare and an optimal schedule for replenishment can be derived under a constant sea level and erosion rate (short term) as well as an increasing sea level and erosion rate (long term). Under some simplifying assumptions, the conceptual framework can examine the time horizon of management responses under sea level rise, identifying the timing of shift to passive management (shoreline retreat) and exploring factors that influence this potential shift. (PDF contains 4 pages)

Fish communities and fisheries in Wales's National Nature Reserves: a review

Wales is important for fish conservation in Britain. In much of Wales, atchments are small (median catchment size = 121 km2 ) and frequently eparated by areas of upland (> 600 m altitude), creating a highly agmented habitat for freshwater fish. Consequently, fish communities onsist mainly of diadromous species such as trout, eel and sticklebacks hat were able to recolonise freshwaters via the sea following the retreat of he ice sheets ca. 10 000 years BP. This review aims to (i) update the former work of Lyle and Maitland, taking into account new National Nature Reserves (NNRs)and additional data collected since 1991; (ii) assess the different fish communities represented on Welsh NNRs with respect to their naturalness; (iii) examine the use of NNRs for angling; (iv) evaluate opportunities for expanding the NNR series to conserve fish populations of conservation importance. The paper provides a table of freshwater fish occurrence by water body in Wales.

Population structure of chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) across the Pacific Rim, determined from microsatellite analysis

The Pacific Rim population structure of chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) was examined with a survey of microsatellite variation to describe the distribution of genetic variation and to evaluate whether chum salmon may have originated from two or more glacial refuges following dispersal to newly available habitat after glacial retreat. Variation at 14 microsatellite loci was surveyed for over 53,000 chum salmon sampled from over 380 localities ranging from Korea through Washington State. An index of genetic differentiation, FST, over all populations and loci was 0.033, with individual locus values ranging from 0.009 to 0.104. The most genetically diverse chum salmon were observed from Asia, particularly Japan, whereas chum salmon from the Skeena River and Queen Charlotte Islands in northern British Columbia and those from Washington State displayed the fewest number of alleles compared with chum salmon in other regions. Differentiation in chum salmon allele frequencies among regions and populations within regions was approximately 18 times greater than that of annual variation within populations. A regional structuring of populations was the general pattern observed, with chum salmon spawning in different tributaries within a major river drainage or spawning in smaller rivers in a geographic area generally more similar to each other than to populations in different major river drainages or geographic areas. Population structure of chum salmon on a Pacific Rim basis supports the concept of a minimum of two refuges, northern and southern, during the last glaciation, but four possible refuges fit better the observed distribution of genetic variation. The distribution of microsatellite variation of chum salmon on a Pacific Rim basis likely reflects the origins of salmon radiating from refuges after the last glaciation period.