According to a recent study by Stanford researchers, investments in the environment are paying off for a California county where efforts aimed to restore the natural ecosystem are simultaneously mitigating the effects of sea-level rise.
Nature-based solutions, such as preserving marshlands and recovering beaches, can be just as successful as concrete seawalls at preventing sea-level rise while also delivering additional advantages, according to the study, which was published in the journal Urban Sustainability on June 9.
These advantages, such as recreational activities, climate change mitigation through carbon storage, and nutrient pollution reduction, encourage governments to favor nature-based solutions for sea-level rise.
Conservation and protection of San Mateo County to sea level rise
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Anne Guerry, chief strategy officer and senior scientist at Stanford University's Natural Capital Project, is the study's lead author.
The models demonstrated how investing more may benefit communities, as per ScienceDaily.
The researchers modeled three scenarios for responding to sea-level rise using feedback from stakeholder workshops and scientific assessments of the potential of portions of shoreline for restoration of diverse coastal ecosystems.
The first scenario called for concrete seawalls to be built along the whole San Francisco Bay shoreline, a conventional method of keeping the sea at bay.
The second scenario evaluated conservation and restoration initiatives in the county that are presently underway or in different phases of preparation, such as salt pond rehabilitation and the addition of a beach in front of a levee.
The team utilized InVEST, a free, open-source program from the Natural Capital Project, to predict the additional benefits that may flow to individuals as a result of the county's sea-level rise adaption choices.
Conservation and restoration initiatives would provide up to eight times the amount of advantages as typical methods while giving the same level of flood protection, according to the researchers.
For example, the results revealed that current nature-based solutions would result in a six-fold decrease in stormwater pollution compared to a scenario using standard concrete seawalls.
The third scenario, which included more nature-based initiatives, would reduce stormwater pollution by eight times more than traditional techniques, which is critical for keeping Bay waterways clean.
The fundamental cause of the present sea level increase is global warming.
Since 1880, human activities, such as burning coal and oil and deforestation, have raised atmospheric concentrations of heat-trapping gases, causing the earth to warm by 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit, as per the UCS.
Ocean waters warm as the temperature rises, and as the temperature rises, they expand.
For 75 to 100 years following the start of the Industrial Revolution, this thermal expansion was the primary engine of global sea-level rise, however, its relative importance has decreased as land ice melting has increased.
In reaction to rising temperatures, land ice glaciers, ice caps, and ice sheets are disappearing faster, contributing water to the world's seas.
Coastal counties are home to over a third of the US population or more than 100 million people.
Rising seas and coastal storm surges are particularly dangerous in coastal states with extensive regions of low-lying terrains, such as Louisiana, Florida, North Carolina, California, and South Carolina. Coastal states face the following dangers:
Erosion and destruction of the shoreline. Even in calm situations, rising sea levels allow waves to reach deeper inland, increasing the risk of erosion.
Furthermoreo, storm surges exacerbated.
Storm surges are caused by powerful winds pushing water inland during coastal storms.
Storm surges occur as a result of increasing sea levels, reaching further inland and causing potentially catastrophic damage to houses and infrastructure.
Rising sea levels are predicted to progressively drown several low-lying coastal land regions.
More than $1 trillion in property and structures in the United States would be flooded if sea levels rose two feet above current levels, with nearly half of that value concentrated in Florida.
As sea levels rise, saltwater can penetrate deeper into coastal groundwater sources, increasing the salinity of fresh water used for drinking and agriculture.
