Geography in the News: Can nature keep the waves at bay?

Coastal areas across the US at risk of flooding due to extreme weather and sea level rise are building walls. However hard engineering solutions can have knock on effects further along the coast – so how can nature-based alternatives keep the waves at bay?

There are currently plans for huge sea walls in Miami, Charleston and New York - massive projects, with enormous construction costs. Each of these projects will make residents feel safe from the effects of sea level rise, but will have negative impacts further down the coastline, such as intensifying storm surges and destroying ecosystems, therefore potentially leading to greater climate vulnerability.

However, more and more places are using nature-based solutions to protect against flooding and storm surges. One of these solutions is the Billion Oyster Project, which aims to allow the shoreline to adapt and be resilient rather than put up seawalls, by restoring 1 billion oysters to New York Harbour by 2035, in an effort to improve the area’s flood resiliency.

This project will work alongside Living Breakwater, a nature-based green infrastructure along the Staten Island coastline, to cultivate the region’s shellfish habitat. The aim here is to mitigate storm surges through living barriers, with breakwaters – a series of rock piles that blunt the impact of waves just off the coast. The breakwaters are made of granite rocks and eco-concrete, which will encourage animals and plants to latch on and grow - like an artificial reef.

In Boston scientists are trialling other alternative paths to rigid infrastructure, including the “Emerald Tutu”, a system of interlacing floating mats with growing vegetation which will form a floating swampland. By placing these around the shoreline they are aiming to dissipate energy from the waves.

Around the US coast there are many varied natural solutions to protect the coast, from restoring mangroves in Cheseapeake Bay (which provide shelter for marine life and slow down waves), to marshlands and wetlands in Florida reducing storm surges, to dune restoration in California, which become obstacles to the wind that carries the bulk of storm damage.

Marshes and mangroves and other coastal vegetation are an effective way of preventing erosion and trapping sediment so that you’re not eroding the edge, and reducing wave energy.

Read the full article here - https://www.theguardian.com/us...