Coastal infrastructureRisks grow as Americans continue to build on eroding coast
More than two million housing units have been built along the nation’s coast within the last twenty years, and as the American economy recovers after years of recession, development along the U.S. coastline is steadily increasing. Scientists warn, however, that building along coastlines could put life and property at risk due to erosion, rising sea levels, and storm damage.
More than two million housing units have been built along the nation’s coast within the last twenty years, and as the American economy recovers after years of recession, development along the U.S. coastline is steadily increasing, according to a new report from Reuters. Florida has the most coastline out of the contiguous forty-eight states. It boasts 1,350 miles of shoreline and represents a third of the nation’s coastal building.
Climate scientists warn, however, that building along coastlines could put life and property at risk due to erosion and climate change-induced rising sea levels and storm damage.
“Florida is lucky in that the geologic platform is far more stable than Louisiana and some of the other states where the apparent sea level rises fast, and also our erosion rate is slower than many states,” said Dr. Courtney Hackney, the director of University of North Florida’s coastal biology program. “But, we also have many areas around of coast that are really close to sea level. So, they’re extremely vulnerable and, as everyone in Florida knows, hurricanes are a common occurrence here.”
WJCT News reports that Florida state legislators have passed multiple laws intended to reduce development along the most vulnerable coastal areas, but the state government also offers strong incentives for developers to continuing building along Florida’s sea shore. “This has trapped the state in a cycle of working to maintain its perpetually eroding shores,” Reuters notes. Taxpayer funded projects that aim to replenish eroded beaches are unsustainable. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spent $150 million to replenish thirty-nine miles of Florida’s beaches in 2013.
“The solutions are either you armor the shoreline, which means that the beach for the public goes away, or you nourish. The nourishing facet works to the degree that those are sacrificial beaches,” Hackney said. “As you build up the beach one place, if you don’t do it along the entire coastline, that beach becomes the focus of wave energy, which means it erodes more quickly. The more time that goes on, the faster the erosion occurs.”
