Insightful thoughts submitted by attorney and Natural Hazard Mitigation Association President Ed Thomas on the NYT Rhode Island article I mentioned yesterday:

This extremely important article displays a thoughtful approach to 1) the questions of what we should do about sea level rise and beach erosion; 2) the very real problems we face as a society dealing with both gradual and storm-induced erosion; and 3) how the erosion problem fits into public safety.

The locus of the story is the Town of South Kingston, which is famous for a number of reasons:

• It is the town which attempted, with all good intentions, to ban construction on a barrier beach. That ban was held to be a “Taking” in the Annicelli case which I mention in most of my lectures [Annicelli v. Town of South Kingston, 463 A.d 133 (1983)].
• It is one of the two places where a HUD [US Department of Housing and Urban Development] study documented that the National Flood Insurance Program actually induced construction to take place, which would otherwise not have been possible due to local lenders “blue lining” some hazardous areas in which they had previously lost money.
• It is part of the general area in which the US Government, in a book produced by the Federal Writer’s Project after the great New England Hurricane of 1938, indicated that “(t)here are earnest proposals that seaside resorts pass zoning laws.” That book, (New England Hurricane, Hale, Cushman & Flint, 1938) went on to suggest that “the New England Council hopes to persuade owners to build cottages further inland instead of at the water’s edge.” The book further suggested that “(e)rrors of a century’s haphazard building may now be rectified.” The methodology of that rectification was suggested to be federal funds for more substantial reconstruction, “broad uncluttered sand dunes,” and Army surveys of beaches accompanied by jetties and sea walls.

Hopefully, today we would agree with the parts of the book which recommend local zoning and the need to build away from the shoreline; maybe not so much sea walls and jetties.

I do rather wish the NYT article had discussed why folks build where they build, and why it is allowed. Perhaps in another, future article?

The article quotes two of the folks from the State of Rhode Island Coastal Council who take a most thoughtful approach to Coastal Development: Grover Fugate, Executive Director and Janet Freedman, Coastal Geologist.

Have thoughts? Send them our way.

Need a quick video on sea level rise to show your elected officials? Try this.

Watch “Rising tide in Norfolk, Va.” on PBS’s Need to Know.

From the introduction:

Just as flooding threats need to be factored into coastal community planning initiatives, so too should sea level change. Unfortunately, the “one size fits all” approach does not work.

The level of uncertainty represented in sea level projections is one challenge. Furthermore, universal projections can’t be uniformly applied to all communities because of the many local variables. These variables include subsidence or uplift, and changes in estuarine and shelf hydrodynamics, regional oceanographic circulation patterns, and river flows. Local calculations are needed.

Then add in the local response, where many variables come into play as well. Even if two communities have similar projection numbers, their responses are likely to be widely different because of the external factors specific to their locations that must be considered, such as anticipated local risk, community will, and the type of planning process in which the numbers will be used.
Incorporating sea level change into planning processes involves more than selecting a number. That is why this document advocates the scenario approach.

Using the information provided here, communities can develop a process that incorporates a range of possibilities and factors. With this information various scenarios can be developed, both in terms of projections and responses, to meet the specific circumstances of a community. Moreover, working through the scenario development process provides the data and information that officials will need to make communities readily adaptable to changing circumstances.

“Incorporating Sea Level Change Scenarios at the Local Level” is a “low-tech” companion for a technical report created by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The original document, Technical Considerations for Use of Geospatial Data in Sea Level Change Mapping and Assessment, can be found on the following websites:

• NOAA Coastal Services Center
• NOAA Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services
• NOAA National Geodetic Survey

The Center for Climate Strategies Adaptation Guidebook includes a catalogue of adaptation actions, detailed review of state and local adaptation plans and comprehensive methodology and supporting templates for sub national adaptation planning. The Adaptation Guidebook complements the step-based methodology CCS applies to mitigation work, and if applied consecutively, will have progressive impact in advanced climate planning and action.

Interested? More information (including a download link) here.

Don’t worry — there’s good stuff in here for those of us living state-side, too.

Added this to our Finding and Using Additional Hazard Information page.

The new “Visualize” section allows users to learn how different types of visualizations can help communities understand their inundation risks and vulnerabilities. The “Picture It” page offers tools and local examples of how photos, maps, and mapping viewers can be used to visualize the extent and impacts of inundation. The “Graph It” page directs users to tools and websites that can be used to visualize trends, such as sea level rise, and spatial relationships for complex data sets.

For the more technically advanced, the “Build It” page directs users to training, data, and guidance that can get them started with creating their own visualizations. Visualizing inundation is important in understanding the potential extent of inundation and the risks it poses on the community. Being able to visualize inundation allows communities to prepare and plan for these events in the future.

We’ve added it to our Finding and Using Additional Hazard information page.

Visit the NOAA CSC Coastal Inundation Toolkit.

Insurance companies got out of the business of writing flood insurance decades ago, so much of the risk from sea level rise is expected to fall on the financially troubled National Flood Insurance Program, set up by Congress, or on state insurance pools. Federal taxpayers also heavily subsidize coastal development when the government pays to rebuild infrastructure destroyed in storm surges and picks up much of the bill for private losses not covered by insurance.

For decades, coastal scientists have argued that these policies are foolhardy, and that the nation must begin planning an orderly retreat from large portions of its coasts, but few politicians have been willing to embrace that message or to warn the public of the rising risks.

Organizations like Mr. Ebell’s, [the Competitive Enterprise Institute] even as they express skepticism about climate science, have sided with the coastal researchers on one issue. They argue that Congress should stop subsidizing coastal development, regarding it as a waste of taxpayers’ money regardless of what the ocean might do in the future.

“If people want to build an expensive beach house on the Florida or Carolina coast, they should take their own risk and pay for their own insurance,” Mr. Ebell said.

That’s big: when people from all political stripes agree that something should change, it just might.

The Center for Planning Excellence (CPEX) and the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) recently released the Best Practices Manual for Development in Coastal Louisiana website.

What’s novel about this site is that it provides strategies for creating sustainable and resilient coastal communities based on “geotypes” (pick from chenier plain, alluvium, upper riverbanks, middle riverbanks, lower riverbanks, or coastal delta: map for where these are in Louisiana here).

While the geotypes aren’t found everywhere, many of the recommendations on the site are relevant not only for other parts of the Gulf of Mexico, but for coastal areas around the country. Definitely worth a look.

Best Practices Manual for Development in Coastal Louisiana website.

For details (including the link to visit the webinar), see the event’s page on StormSmart Connect.

If your community has any Corps projects, you’ll definitely want to have a quick skim (it’s shorter than it looks: most of the important stuff is in the first few pages, though you may want to dive into some of the appendices), and even if you don’t, it provides a good example of a methodical way to approach a complex issue.