COASTAL RESILIENCE AND SUSTAINABILITY

Cultures have long been attracted to coastal areas, either due to resources, personal protection, environmental beauty, property speculation, (later) property investment, personal prestige, or tourism. These regions, affected in the short-term by tides, winds, waves, and storms, and now clearly sea-level rise and acceleration and more catastrophic weather events, are places of great beauty and expensive speculation. Historically, as shorelines migrated inland through a combination of shoreline erosion and sea-level rise, people migrated with the coast, following the natural progression in a sustainable form of resilience. Today, the fixed plots of land that used to be called speculation properties are now forcefully defended as the rights of the individual. On the flipside is the public trust doctrine, ensuring public access to beaches. Without public access, federal assets are unavailable to prop up and sustain failing beaches, resulting in large costs for privatized areas. How do we as the public trust and individuals shape a sustainable future for coastal areas in light of environmental, economic, and social factors at play?

The current plight in the southeastern USA balances sand nourishment in collapsing coastal systems with a dwindling resource. Recent studies focusing on finding these resources indicate a paucity of renourishment quality materials available offshore. While renourishment is a temporary erosion control, sea-level rise continues to attack island systems from the ocean and the estuary. We have learned from CCC-period dune building on the Outer Banks, that dune emplacement provides a great temporary, short-term relief, we are one storm away from the catastrophic destruction of ailing infrastructure. What is the timing of the economic shift in coastal communities from resilient, to sustainable, to untenable and indefensible?

Solutions, clearly, are required. The current short-term response to erosion and sea-level rise is just that; short-term. Where do we aim long-term solutions? Towards the public trust, or to private interests? How do we serve individual clients now, and develop a clear resilience strategy focused on long-term sustainability for the next 248 years?