An Overview Of Our Solution
- Population Impacted:
- Continent: North America
Address
1330 Broadway, 13th Floor
Oakland, 94612
United States
Population impacted
Size
3,427 miles of coastline in California (NOAA, 2010)
Major Occupations
Local resources the community depends on, and for what purpose
Local threats to resources
Climate Hazards
Level of sensitivity
Level of adaptive capacity
Our solution seeks to restore and protect California?s shoreline ecosystems and communities using an innovative restoration technique known as the ?living shorelines? approach. A living shoreline is defined as a nature-based solution that uses ?a suite of bank stabilization and habitat restoration techniques to reinforce the shoreline, minimize coastal erosion, and maintain coastal processes while protecting, restoring, enhancing, and creating natural habitat for fish and aquatic plants and wildlife? (NOAA Habitat Restoration Center). The shoreline of California historically included a diverse patchwork of native oyster beds, eelgrass beds, marshes, and other subtidal and intertidal habitat that acted as a buffer against storm surges, sea level rise, and coastal flooding. Human activity has destroyed much of this habitat along the California coast, and by recreating and restoring this native habitat, we hope to provide a foundation for native species to recover and once again provide these important ecosystem services. Living shorelines provide living space for estuarine and coastal organisms, while increasing connectivity of wetlands, intertidal and subtidal habitats, and providing a measure of shoreline protection. Although living shoreline techniques have been implemented in other regions such as Chesapeake Bay, the concept is new to California, and we are conducting pilot studies at multiple sites along the California coast in order to see which techniques and methods work best. Working with local partners, we have implemented pilot projects in San Francisco Bay and Alamitos Bay and a third project is in development stages in San Diego Bay. One of our goals is to have these pilot projects serve as a model for communities to create ecosystem based solutions for shoreline protection without having to depend on large and expensive hard infrastructure projects like seawalls and armored shorelines. Living shorelines can be scaled up or down to suit a specific community?s needs and resources, so the method can be replicated as a lower cost, lower technology method of shoreline protection and habitat restoration.
Ecological Costs
Ecological Benefit
Economic Indicators used to measure benefit
Biological indicators that are measured as part of our monitoring protocol include: Native oyster recruitment, native oyster density and growth rates, competitive species recruitment and survival, invertebrate species richness, presence of fish species at the project site, eelgrass establishment and spread in sites that include eelgrass planting efforts, and observations of bird usage of the sites. Physical indicators will include changes in wave action, currents, and sedimentation and erosion rates.
Economic Cost
The project in Alamitos Bay cost $25,000 for a small oyster bed installation, while the San Francisco project cost a total of $1.5M, which includes design, construction, and two years of biological and physical monitoring. One advantage of living shoreline projects is that they can be scaled up or down to reflect the available budget and size of the community. Projects will also become less expensive over time as best practices are established and materials sourcing becomes easier.
Economic Benefit
Economic benefits will come from the reduced cost of rebuilding damaged infrastructure after a flooding or storm event. The living shoreline approach encourages using natural shoreline habitat to buffer from the effects of climate change, so that less coastal infrastructure will be damaged when climate change impacts occur. Living shoreline solutions are also often much cheaper to install than hard infrastructure, and when properly managed do not take as much maintenance as hard infrastructure.
Ecological Indicators used to measure benefit
The worst effects of climate change are yet to be realized in California, so the comparison of benefits from living shorelines in the area is yet to be determined
What were/are the challenges your community faced in implementing this solution?
In some areas, gaining community support and involvement was a hurdle because people were not aware of the benefits or purpose of the projects. Education and outreach took more effort than originally anticipated, but in the end was successful. Finding material to rebuild oyster beds was also a challenge at some sites. Native oysters like to settle on hard substrate, preferably other oyster shells, finding a source of shell is a factor in living shorelines projects. We worked with a local company who wanted to dispose of oyster shell, which created a win-win situation to provide supplies for the project and take the material off of the company?s hands.
Describe the community-based process used to develop the solution including tools and processes used
Many non-profit organizations, government agencies, universities, community groups, and local stakeholders have been involved in the process of developing and implementing our proposed solution to restore nearshore habitat while also protecting shorelines in the bays and estuaries of California. The State Coastal Conservancy is bringing these partners together across the State to share research methods and results and to seek more opportunities to implement these projects. See the ?Describe the Solution? section below for more information. Public input meetings were held prior to the start of each project, and community volunteers participate in monitoring efforts at some locations Volunteer training workshops and events were open to the community and publicized via posted flyers and website and email distribution. Over 19 partners, from non-profit, academic, public, and private sectors have collaborated on the design and implementation of our solution.
Climate hazard of concern
How does your solution reduce the exposure of and buffer/protect the ecosystem affected?
The destruction of subtidal habitat such as oyster reefs and eelgrass beds have left California coastal areas highly exposed to climate hazards like storm surge, sea level rise, and flooding. Living shorelines aim to restore some of the native vegetation and shellfish beds, in order to replace physical structure to reduce this exposure. Preliminary results indicate that the oyster beds have been shown to reduce wind energy, thus buffering and protecting coastal habitat and infrastructure. Seagrass beds also dampen wave energy, stabilize nearshore sediments, improve water quality via nutrient uptake, and provide food and shelter for marine organisms. When used in conjunction with shoreline or marsh habitat restoration components, a natural shoreline buffer is created that reduces coastal erosion protects communities from flooding.
How has your solution increased the capacity of the ecosystem to adapt to potential climate changes?
Restoring subtidal and intertidal habitat and native species along the coast of California may reduce the need for installing hard infrastructure like seawalls or revetments to protect communities from the effects of climate change. We hope to integrate the restoration of oyster beds and eelgrass beds with also restoring intertidal habitats like marshes and mudflats. This will create linkages between habitats and provide a buffer zone where storm surges can dissipate before reaching coastal infrastructure. Restoring habitats along the coast will also provide room for habitats to move farther inshore as sea level rise takes effect.
How does your solution reduce the exposure of and buffer/protect the communities affected?
Much of the developed coastal shoreline is currently protected by hard infrastructure like seawalls and revetments. While these structures provide the immediate area with temporary protection from erosion and wave action, they change the patterns of erosion and sedimentation to adjacent areas and are not a permanent solution to the effects of climate change. Restoring coastal habitat through creating a living shoreline will allow the natural progression of the shoreline to take place instead of accelerating the effects of climate change in areas that are not protected by hard infrastructure. Low income communities are often situated in areas that are vulnerable to flooding, so living shorelines have the potential to protect the communities that are most exposed to climate change and have the least capacity to deal with the effects.
How does your solution reduce the sensitivity of the communities affected?
Living shorelines reduce the sensitivity of coastal communities by providing a natural buffer zone between coastal climate change impacts and the infrastructure that communities depend on. Since coastal communities in California also depend heavily on healthy coastal ecosystems for livelihoods in the fishing and tourism industries, strengthening the ecosystems that provide these services will also decrease the sensitivity of community livelihoods to the effects of climate change
How has your solution increased the capacity of local communities to adapt to potential climate changes?
Creating a living shoreline to build habitat, stabilize sediment, and buffer against climate change impacts will provide the community with an example of climate adaptation that works with nature instead of against it. One of our goals is to increase local knowledge and change attitudes about the methods and processes for adapting to climate change. We hope to gain support from our community and to create a model for living shoreline projects that can be used by local partners throughout the state on a small scale community based level.
Can this solution be replicated elsewhere?
Yes. Our goal is to replicate native oyster and eelgrass restoration projects in other appropriate areas in California to restore habitat and protect our shoreline. The first and largest project is in San Francisco, a smaller site has been installed in Alamitos Bay, and we are currently monitoring baseline conditions at 5 sites in San Diego Bay to implement a native oyster restoration site there in the near future. Some factors for project success have been: appropriate region, depth, and sediment for eelgrass and/or oysters, willing landowners with reasonable timeframe for permits and approvals, and community and stakeholder input.