Projects for the restoration of coasts protect communities from rising seas, storms

In San Francisco Bay, Salzteiche roll back to Marshland more than a century ago. Along the coast of New York and New Jersey, beaches of Superstorm Sandy were subjected to comprehensive restoration. In Alabama, a rebuilt country spit protects a historic city and ensures wild living spaces.

The nationwide on coastal communities are increasing the efforts to ward off rising seas, higher tides and stronger storm surges that pushing on the coast, keeping salted water on the country and threatening ecosystems and communities.

The need for coastal restoration was in the spotlight this month after the officials of Louisiana had canceled a 3 -billion dollar project due to objections to the fishing industry and the concerns about rising costs. The MID-Barataria project was expected to rebuild more than 20 square miles of land for over 50 years by leading sedimented water from the Mississippi river.

The work on many other projects in Louisiana and throughout the country, including barrier islands, salt water swamps, shellfish and other natural characteristics, offered protection against destruction or humiliation from the development. The municipalities also build flood walls, berms and dikes to protect areas that lack adequate natural protection.

The work has become more urgent because climate change leads more intensive and destructive storms and leads to an increase in sea level, which endangered hundreds of communities and ten million people.

“The earlier we can make these coasts more resistant, the better,” said Doug George, a geological oceanographer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Golf coast

In the United States, there may be no more susceptible anywhere than the golf coast tending by Hurricans. According to the US Geological Survey, Louisiana lost more than 2,000 square kilometers of coast in the past century – more than any other state.

In the past, the Mississippi and other rivers stored sediment was rebuilt and nourished collective banks were rebuilt. However, this function was disturbed by the construction of channels and dike together with a different development.

The dangers were enlarged in 2005 when the hurricane Katrina broke through against flood walls and dikes, brought in 80% of New Orleans in New Orleans and killed almost 1,400 people – closely followed by the hurricane Rita.

The state then formed the coastal protection and restoration authority to reduce risks from storm surge and tribe of land loss.

Most of the almost 18 billion US dollars issued in the past 20 years consisted of supporting dikes, tidal walls and other structures, said the authority.

Dozens of other projects have been completed, planned or underway, including the reconstruction swamps and other habitats with sediment, which were dredged by the waterways and restored river flow into areas that have been missing for years.

On the Chandeleur Islands in Louisiana, a Barrier Island chain, the state will pump sand in sand to rebuild it, which dampens storm floods and benefit marine turtles and other wild animals, said Katie Freer-Leonards, who heads the development of the Coast Master Plan 2029 in 2029.

The authority digs a channel so that water and sediment from the Mississippi river can flow into part of Maurepas Swamp, a wetland northwestern wetland forested by New Orleans, which has been dying due to dikes for over a century, said project manager Brad Miller.

Sediment from elsewhere was also pumped into thousands of falling swamps to nourish them and increase their level.

The same thing happens in other countries.

In Bayou La Batre, Alabama – a fishing village built at the end of the 1700 – built the nature conservation building off the coast of Breakwater and then into sediment and built combs, which are now covered with vegetation. This created a “Speed Bump” that has contributed to protecting the city from erosion, said Judy Haner, director of Alabama Nature Conservancy's coastal programs.

The preservatives and others have also created kilometers of oysters and purchase country roads from the coast so that the habitats can penetrate as sea water.

Such efforts will not prevent all land losses, but in Louisiana “they could make a big difference,” said Denise Reed, a research scientist who works on the coastal master plan of Louisiana. “It could buy us for some time.”

Pacific coast

On the west coast, the municipalities, which are susceptible to the increase in sea level, also had more floods of increasingly intensive atmospheric rivers, which carry water vapor out of the ocean and in a short time throw large amounts of rain.

For example, the swamps and floats drained for agriculture and industry are restored along the entire coast, both for the habitat and for coastal protection.

The restoration of habitats, not climate change, was the main consideration when planning began about 20 years ago to restore Marshland at the southern end of the San Francisco Bay, which was destroyed as ponds for harvesting sea salt.

But as a sediment in a naturally wise ponds and swamp plants, “we recognize that … swamps wave energy, storm flood and the power of weddings absorb,” said Dave Halssing, Executive Project Manager of the California State Coastal Conservancy.

This helps to protect what is behind them, including sea walls and land that could otherwise be flooded or washed away, including some of the most expensive properties of California near Silicon Valley.

Projects along the coast of Alaska and in Hawaii, where local residents are originally intended to catch fish, but also protect against storm surge.

Atlantic coast

Thirteen years after Superstorm Sandy flooded the Atlantic coast, the communities still restore natural buffers and build other protective structures.

Sandy started in autumn 2012 as a rather routine hurricane before he merged with other storms, pressed over 1,000 miles and enormous amounts of sea water in coastal communities.

However, the risk of future storm surges could be even greater, since the sea level could rise up to three feet in some areas within 50 years, said Donald E. Cresitello, a coastal engineer and senior Coastal planner for the US Army Corps of Engineers.

The corps rebuilt again, dunes and humans produced by Massachusetts to Virginia and now turns into areas that are nationwide nationwide are susceptible to more powerful storm surges, said Cresitello.

“When a river comes to the coast, this storm surge has the potential to drive up this river,” he said depending on the storm.

A “phenomenal amount” of the US population lives and works on their coasts. The protection of these areas is important for the US economy, said George, the NOAA scientist. But it is also important to preserve generations of culture, he said.

“If you think about why people should be interested … it is a whole way of life,” said George.