Realizing managed retreat and innovation in state-level coastal management planning

Managed Retreat in the United States

“…States can support retreat directly, by implementing property acquisition programs as in New York and New Jersey, or indirectly by creating setback regulations, banning shoreline armoring, and establishing building codes. 10,62,63 However, states may also rely on property tax revenue or development fees or may be unwilling to oppose local governments who want to promote floodplain development.…”

“…Voluntary property buyouts have been the most common form of managed retreat in the US, 62 and research on retreat has followed suit, but it is not clear that buyouts are the way forward. Purchase prices may be too low to enable owners to find comparable housing and too high to scale up to meet future demand.…”

“…Other policy options have been less well studied, have generated expensive litigation, or have encountered reluctance by government officials to experiment. 62,91 Enforced retreat through eminent domain, police powers, or public trust doctrine remains possible, but social taboo has restricted their use. 92,93 Future Directions To address the barriers to managed retreat will require evaluations, contributions from diverse actors, and vision and leadership to coordinate it all (see Figure 4).…”

“…Almost all conversation around managed retreat in the US has focused on voluntary residential buyouts, because they have been the most common type of retreat in the US. 62 Other legal strategies such as conservation easements, rolling easements, transfer of development rights, public trust doctrine, and exactions have been proposed but not used or used with little recognition. [8][9][10]62,63,94,95 It seems unlikely, however, that buyouts will be the way forward, as they are expensive and difficult to scale.…”

Effective LiDAR-based modelling and visualisation of managed retreat scenarios for coastal planning: An example from the southern UK

“…Managed retreat (MR) is a potential long-term planning solution for coastal flood management that can reduce the impact of flooding and decrease long-term management costs (Dyckman et al, 2014;Ni et al, 2014;D avila et al, 2014). The implementation of MR in coastal areas has the potential to assist with coastal flood alleviation (Ni et al, 2014), increase the extent of often threatened and spatially limited habitats (Foster et al, 2013) and provide greater ecosystem services (Spencer and Harvey, 2012;Vieira da Silva et al, 2014).…”