Game of Floods - Town Beach
Downtown Business Owner
Assignment: Read the role assignment and background reading below, then answer the questions at the end.
Role Assignment:
You own a small business in the downtown area of Resilience. You depend on business from tourists who visit the beach in summer, and you are concerned that the beach has been shrinking. You would like to see the town council take steps to protect the beach. You recognize that sea level rise is happening, and you think it’s better for local businesses if the town has a plan in place to cope with it.
Background Reading:
The Case for Managed Retreat
Adapted from Beachapedia; http://www.beachapedia.org/Managed_Retreat
Coastal erosion is an integral part of natural beach processes. Beaches are not stagnant, but instead are dynamic systems that shift, migrate, fill and erode; sometimes taking and sometimes giving. While many coastal communities throughout the United States and around the world point to coastal erosion as the cause of their shrinking beaches, erosion really only becomes a problem when we build houses, roads and other structures too close to the water. Unfortunately, that is how development has been occurring along our coasts, and we haven't given our beaches the room they need to naturally maintain themselves.
Coastal erosion in Massachusetts.
Erosion Respnose Options
The potential responses to coastal erosion include seawalls, beach fill, and managed retreat. Seawalls and other hard structures built to hold back the advance of the sea often fail and need to be rebuilt over and over again. Another problem is that seawalls inevitably lead to the loss of sand from beaches. Waterfront properties receive only a temporary respite, while public beaches are often lost for good.
Another approach is beach fill, also known as beach nourishment, whereby sand is typically dredged from a harbor or offshore source and pumped/placed/spread on a beach to widen it. This can be environmentally damaging – both to the dredged area and to the beach. In addition, these projects may be very costly and typically must be repeated every few years.
That leaves the option of managed retreat.
The idea behind managed retreat is simple: As the shore erodes, buildings and other infrastructure are either demolished or relocated inland. It can also involve restoration of natural habitats such as marshes and dunes that may also help control flooding from the sea. Managed retreat is the most environmentally friendly strategy, and it’s also the only strategy that provides long-term protection from sea level rise. However, in practice it is often very difficult to accomplish – because it is very expensive, and because coastal property owners usually don’t want to give up their homes or businesses.
One strategy is for towns, states, or the federal government to buy out coastal property owners. Since 1990, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)’s voluntary buy-out program has purchased more than 40,000 at risk homes in coastal areas to make room for flood plain restoration or open space. Similarly, after Superstorm Sandy in 2012, New York state offered a buy-out to home-owners in certain coastal areas at high risk of flooding again. Buy-outs are typically very expensive, because coastal properties are often extremely valuable. Another less obvious expense is that many towns depend on property taxes paid by wealthy coastal property owners – if those structures are demolished, the town loses the revenue.
Another strategy is for towns to establish rules that prevent coastal property owners in hazard zones from building sea walls or other modifications of the coast to hold back the natural beach erosion process. As the coastline erodes, the property owners would eventually be forced out. This strategy is less expensive for towns than a buy-out, but extremely unpopular with coastal property owners, because it decreases the value of their properties and increases the risk of property damage in storms.
Case Study: Pacifica, California
In San Mateo County, California, the city of Pacifica had long battled chronic coastal flooding and beach erosion. For decades, the city had relied on sea walls along the beach and along San Pedro Creek. But despite the sea walls, flooding still was threatening homes and businesses, and the sea walls had damaged the habitat and water quality in San Pedro Creek so that steelhead trout could no longer live there. The sandy beach at Pacifica State Beach was also eroding away, and surfers and environmentalists blamed this on the sea walls.
Coastal erosion in Pacifica
Pacifica decided to use Managed Retreat along with wetland habitat restoration to deal with the flooding problem. First, Pacifica partnered with the state of California and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to restore the tidal wetland at the mouth of San Pedro Creek, removing some sea walls. This helped the steelhead trout recover. It also cost less than building another seawall, and may protect the community near the creek from flooding, because wetlands act like sponges to absorb water.
Pacifica also purchased two of the most vulnerable homes and their surrounding acreage for $2.2 million, demolished the buildings, removed all the sea walls that had been protecting those homes, and replaced them with natural sand dunes. They also relocated one restaurant to a new location across the road.
The end result of all this work is that flood hazards have been reduced, the wetland habitat is functioning, and the recreational use of Pacifica State Beach has increased.
Managed retreat has not been universally popular in Pacifica – town officials and local residents have resisted adopting it more broadly – but at Pacifica State Beach, it has been a success.
Erosion control fabric on the margin of the new dunes at Pacifica State Beach kept sand in place, giving the native plants a chance to re-vegetate the dune.
Photo: Go Native, Inc.
Pacifica State Beach, showing removal of two houses from the beach as well as restoration of San Pedro creek.
Questions:
1. What is managed retreat?
2. What is one disadvantage of managed retreat as a response to coastal erosion?
3. How did managed retreat benefit Pacifica, CA?
4. Answer this question in character as a downtown business owner (see the role description at the top). Would you be in favor of Resilient using managed retreat to try to get rid of or relocate the buildings on the beach? Explain your reasoning.
Once you have answered the above questions, move on to Part 2 here.
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