Coastal ecosystem restoration as an adaptation strategy: perspectives from the local to the global

Abstract:

Coastal ecosystems are gaining significant attention for their capacity to attenuate high waves and water levels and thereby protect vulnerable coastlines, people and property from coastal flooding and erosion during extreme events. The 2019 IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and the Cryosphere explored the potential role that ecosystems can play as an adaptation strategy to hazards driven and aggravated by climate change and sea-level rise. Recent studies have coupled process-based coastal flood models with socio-economic data on asset and population exposure to quantify where and how mangrove and marsh ecosystems provide economic benefits by reducing flood risks from multiple storm events at global and local scales. Other recent studies have collected data from small island communities across multiple countries to understand where and how these ecosystems are viewed or favored as adaptation strategies.

Ecosystems can be physically effective at reducing coastal hazards and at the same time are often highly beneficial to local communities in multiple ways. Yet, funding for adaptation and post-disaster rebuilding strategies continue to focus mostly on traditional, grey structures despite recognized shortcomings in terms of their capital and maintenance costs, adaptability, and adverse impacts on adjacent ecosystems and coastlines. This talk will provide perspectives on the contexts and settings in which paying for ecosystem conservation or restoration could make sense as an adaptation strategy. The presentation will synthesize and review results from recent scientific studies on the physical and economic benefits of mangrove and marsh wetland ecosystems for risk reduction, and on how small island populations that rely on ecosystems for multiple services perceive and choose their adaptation strategies.