Adapting to climate change: Combining economics and geomorphology in coastal policy

How is climate change affecting our coastal environment? How can coastal communities adapt to sea level rise andincreased storm risk? These questions have garnered tremendous interest from scientists and policy makers alike, as the dynamic coastal environment is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Over half the world population lives and works in a coastal zone less than 120 miles wide, thereby being continuously affected by the changes in the coastal environment [6]. Housing markets are directly influenced by the physical processes thatgovern coastal systems. Beach towns like Oak Island in North Carolina (NC) face severe erosion, and the taxassesed value of one coastal property fell by 93% in 2007 [9]. With almost ninety percent of the sandy beaches inthe US facing moderate to severe erosion [8], coastal communities often intervene to stabilize the shoreline and hold back the sea in order to protect coastal property and infrastructure.Beach nourishment, which is the process of rebuilding a beach by periodically replacing an eroding section of thebeach with sand dredged from another location, is a policy for erosion control in many parts of the US Atlantic andPacific coasts [3]. Beach nourishment projects in the United States are primarily federally funded and implementedby the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) after a benefit-cost analysis. Benefits from beach nourishment includereduction in storm damage and recreational benefits from a wider beach. Costs would include the expected cost ofconstruction, present value of periodic maintenance, and any external cost such as the environmental cost associatedwith a nourishment project (NOAA). Federal appropriations for nourishment totaled $787 million from 1995 to2002 [10].Human interventions to stabilize shorelines and physical coastal dynamics are strongly coupled. The value of thebeach, in the form of storm protection and recreation amenities, is at least partly capitalized into property values. These beach values ultimately influence the benefit-cost analysis in support of shoreline stabilization policy, which, in turn, affects the shoreline dynamics. This paper explores the policy implications of this circularity. With a better understanding of the physical-economic feedbacks, policy makers can more effectively design climate change adaptation strategies. (PDF contains 4 pages)

National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration

U.S. EPA Coastal Management Branch

U.S. Geolgocial Survey

NOAA Sea Grant