Coastlines, Coastal Cities, and Climate Change: A Perspective on Urgent Research Needs in the United States

Abstract

This paper builds upon Friedman et al. (2020) and other reviews and statements but provides an explicit focus on research needed to improve the resilience and survivability of coastal communities as they face existential threats from climate change. It does not attempt a prescriptive analysis of potential research emphases, but instead recommends some key research areas that we believe will help provide a solid foundation for community adaptation. Our perspective is based on our experiences over a combined nearly 95 years of work in research, management, and policy, much of it related to coastal environments and their communities, rather than expert deliberation within a large group or a systematic review. We present a list of 25 research priorities binned into 12 categories and targeted to leaders of coastal communities, interested researchers, funders, students, and the public. These priorities are intended to help start more discussion of research needs with and within communities, and help focus attention of researchers on actions that have potential to identify critical decision points and make positive differences for communities. We conclude that priority research should be undertaken with urgency and a much greater level of trans- and interdisciplinarity and community-participatory approaches than yet seen.

Participatory and Spatial Analyses of Environmental Justice Communities’ Concerns about a Proposed Storm Surge and Flood Protection Seawall

“…Unfortunately, adaptation options to protect coastal cities are relatively limited and primarily include some forms of built or nature-based protective structures, elevation of threatened buildings and infrastructure where feasible, and retreat. In many cases, only a relatively small fraction of threatened infrastructure can be elevated cost-effectively and while retreat for small and critically endangered communities may be reasonable, for entire cities it is difficult to contemplate [ 3 ].…”

“…Coastal cities worldwide are facing increasing and existential threats from climate change-related flooding [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ]. Charleston, South Carolina (SC), located on the US south Atlantic coast at 32.78° W, 79.93° N) ( Figure 1 ), is a vibrant historic coastal city highly vulnerable to sea-level rise-associated flooding and hurricane storm surge.…”

Is Living in a U.S. Coastal City Good for One’s Health?

“…The environmental status of coastal areas should receive more attention in future studies, particularly as impacts of climate change such as increases in coastal storms, flooding, harmful algal blooms, water-and food-borne infectious diseases, and other problems arise [15]. Mishra et al [57] provide an elegant BlueHealth Environment Assessment Tool for evaluating environmental characteristics of coastal areas and how they may affect health promoting effects and use of blue spaces.…”

“…While potential health-promoting effects of coastal living are now recognized (bluehealth2020.eu (accessed on 5 August 2021)), the numbers and intensity of environmental disasters including those affecting coastal areas are apparently increasing [11]. These, along with related and separate effects of climate change, have raised grave concerns about the long-term survivability of some coastal communities [12][13][14][15]. The U.S. Gulf of Mexico (Gulf) coast has been particularly affected by recurrent hurricanes and tropical storms, including six that made landfall in 2020 alone.…”

Comparison of Accelerated Versions of the Iterative Gradient Method to Ameliorate the Spatial Resolution of Microwave Radiometer Products

“…Coastal areas are usually economically relevant areas both for the civil infrastructure built and the presence of a large population fraction. For example, 52% of the U.S. population lives in such areas with a population density that is from 3 to 4 times the average one [1] and there is a major concern about the climate change impact on such communities. The interdisciplinary study detailed in [1] calls for reliable and independent measurements and this role can be played by satellite microwave remote sensing integrating large-scale sensors such as microwave radiometers and small-scale sensors.…”