Coastal Ecosystems Facing Inundation: Wetlands and Beaches

Abstract

Damage or loss of property and critical infrastructure facilities due to coastal storms and rising seas is unavoidable but can be substantially reduced with prompt and thoughtful adaptation actions, including building coastal protection structures and relocating assets. Coastal ecosystems, including wetlands, beaches, dunes, marshes, and mangrove forests, will also be damaged by storms and inundated as sea level rises. Sustaining these diffuse natural systems as storms intensify and seas rise is much more difficult than protecting human-made infrastructure because of the large land areas involved and the natural and human-made constraints on landward migration of the ecosystems.