Coastal Communities need to do more to protect Shoreline for Climate Change, Study Says

The Baltimore Sun
October 28, 2009
Timothy B. Wheeler

Atlantic coastal communities have been slow to prepare themselves for rising sea level from climate change, though Maryland has been in the forefront of states in grappling with the issue, a new report says.

The report, published Tuesday as Senate leaders push climate legislation, summarizes the results of a $2 million federal effort to map the likelihood of shoreline protections if climate change raises sea level as predicted. The findings of the federal study were suppressed by the Bush administration, but the authors were allowed to air the outcome in "Environmental Research Letters," a scholarly journal.

Reviewing the land use plans of about 130 local governments from Maine to Florida, the report finds that coastal communities will require increasingly costly shoreline protections as sea level rises unless authorities take steps now to adapt. Likewise, the report's authors caution, ecologically important wetlands could be lost because little provision has been made to allow them to migrate inland naturally.

Maryland, though, is generally ahead of most other Atlantic states, the authors note.

"It looks like they are not only moving in the right direction, it appears they are leading the rest of the nation, with the possible exception of a few New England states," said James G. Titus, lead author of the report, who works at the Environmental Protection Agency.

"That stands to reason," added Will Nuckols, a private consultant from Annapolis, another author, "because Maryland is one of the most threatened areas." The state has more than 4,000 miles of shoreline, including 31 miles of Atlantic oceanfront.

Nationally, almost 60 percent of low-lying shore land is expected to be developed, the report concludes, while less than 10 percent has been set aside for conservation, leaving little guaranteed room so far for coastal wetlands to move inland as waters rise. In Maryland, only about 35 percent of the waterfront is built up - mainly along Ocean City and the bay's western shore - while 56 percent remains largely undeveloped. Sea level along the bay shore has risen a foot in the past century, a combination of rising water and sinking coastal land.

Those figures pose a challenge to state and local governments in deciding where to invest taxpayer resources in protecting public and private property from inundation or storm damage, the authors say.

"Clearly we will protect a lot of communities from the rising sea, jacking up houses and bringing in fill," said Titus. "But do we want to do that everywhere? Or do we want to limit our damages?"

Since the EPA-financed study began in 2001, Maryland has taken steps to assess potential climate impacts in the state and how to adapt to them, said Zoe Johnson, a program manager in the office of sustainability of the Department of Natural Resources.

Maryland lawmakers adopted a "living shorelines" law last year encouraging waterfront property owners to plant shrubbery and trees to fight erosion, rather than hardening the water's edge with bulkheads or stone revetments. Regulations to carry out the legislature's intent are pending.

To see maps and findings for Maryland, go to plan.risingsea.net/Maryland.html.