Planning for The Future: Coastal Resilience Modeling of Vulnerabilities
Vital assets and infrastructure are often located in coastal and tidally influenced areas. Expected sea level rise (SLR) and more frequent and intense storms are causing many natural resources and infrastructure managers to try to better understand these near-term and long-term risks. This presentation discusses risks natural resources and infrastructure managers face and uses case studies to show how they can understand, plan for, and budget for these risks. It also discusses the technical aspects of how a coastal resilience study was conducted, the findings, and steps toward a plan for future funding needs. The work includes describing data used to assess vulnerabilities, communicating risk to build stakeholder understanding, modeling and analyzing local waves and runup, and communicating the results through alternatives and long-term planning to be more resilient while managing costs. The presentation will summarize SLR data sources and discuss how local risk-tolerance is used in selecting the appropriate SLR scenarios. This presentation will also present a clear process of how modeling of SLR can provide predictive analytical data to support planning and result in significant cost savings over time for many entities. A predictive and informative approach has been developed for understanding future coastal resilience concerns based on environmental factors, including SLR, storm intensity, and flooding. This approach supports a better understanding for all entities maintaining natural resources and infrastructure near a coastline, tidally influenced waterway, or flood prone area.
Author Bio
Nick Brown is a Coastal Scientist at HDR with experience in coastal resilience and adaptation projects including nature-based solutions, hazard analysis, resilience planning studies, and community engagement. He currently serves on the board of directors of the American Shore and Beach Preservation Association and the Coastal Zone Foundation.
