Environmental Sciences Commons^™

Pursuing Resilience Of Coastal Communities Through Sustainable And Integrated Urban Water Management, Pacia Díaz

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Reliability of water supply in the urban setting has become essential for communities to function and thrive. It is needed for more than mere human consumption and well-being. Although modern cities have water treatment and distribution systems, pressures from urbanization, population growth and the anticipated pressures of climate change are affecting the quality of water supply and the reliability of treatment and distribution systems. There is therefore an urgent need to take appropriate measures to improve the resilience of water supply systems before the impacts are irreversible.

Improving the resilience of water supply systems can be a challenge. In the …

Living Shoreline Sea-Level Resiliency: Performance And Adaptive Management Of Existing Sites, C. Scott Hardaway Jr., Donna A. Milligan, Christine A. Wilcox

Reports

The goal of this project is to monitor effectiveness of nature-based resiliency projects such as those that use living shoreline management strategies. Living shoreline strategies can effectively control shoreline erosion while providing water quality benefits and maintaining natural habitat and coastal processes. These ecosystem-based management systems have been the preferred alternative for stabilizing tidal shorelines in the Commonwealth of Virginia since 2011. However, a recent analysis has shown that between 2011 and 2016 only 24% of the permits granted for shore protection were considered living shorelines (ASMFC, 2016). These types of systems may be relatively new to many landowners and …

Governance For A Changing Climate: Adapting Boston’S Built Environment For Increased Flooding, Stephanie Kruel, Rebecca Herst, David Cash

School for the Environment Publications

Climate Change is impacting everything in our society and in our world. The changes we are already experiencing are starting to multiply and accelerate. Determining how to respond to this new reality wisely within the governance and governmental structures that we have built is a complex challenge. Some might argue it is humankind’s greatest test. Given the monumental size of this task, it is difficult to simultaneously address all of the related issues both broadly and deeply. This is the third and final in a series of reports from the Sustainable Solutions Lab that were sponsored by the Boston Green …

High Net Loss Of Intertidal Wetland Coverage In A Maine Estuary By Year 2100, Jack R. Mclachlan

Biology and Ecology Faculty Scholarship

Rising sea levels and coastal land use are predicted to synergistically impact coastal wetlands by reducing their extent and ecosystem functioning through a process known as “coastal squeeze”. Impervious surfaces associated with coastal development prevent the natural process of wetland migration, whereby intertidal wetland area is lost at its seaward edge to rising low water lines, but is replaced by eroding uplands and accumulating new wetland at its landward edge. As these constructed surfaces prevent the replacement of lost wetland, intertidal wetlands are “squeezed” by rising sea levels until they disappear. This study uses geographic information system (GIS) to predict …

Forecasting Coastal Water Levels In Virginia, Center For Coastal Resources Management, Virginia Institute Of Marine Science

Reports

Rivers & Coast is a periodic publication of the Center for Coastal Resources Management, Virginia Institute of Marine Science. The goal of Rivers & Coast is to keep readers well informed of current scientific understanding behind key environmental issues related to watershed rivers and coastal ecosystems of the Chesapeake Bay.

Assessing Land Deformation And Sea Encroachment In The Nile Delta, Egypt, Esayas Gebremichael

Research and Creative Activities Poster Day

Persistent scatterer interferometric analyses were conducted on a stack of 84 Envisat ASAR scenes spanning 7 years (2004 to 2010) over the entire Nile Delta of Egypt and surroundings to monitor the ongoing spatial and temporal land deformation, identify the factors controlling the deformation, and model the interplay between sea level rise and land subsidence to identify areas and populations threatened by sea encroachment by the end of the 21st century. Findings include: (1) general patterns of subsidence in the northern delta, near-steady (none) subsidence in the southern delta, separated by a previously mapped flexure zone undergoing uplift; (2) high …

Using A Design Charrette And State Of The Art Coastal Modeling To Support Local Government Adaptation To Sea Level Rise, Carol Macilroy, John Doyle, Eric Grossman, Guillaume Mauger

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

The majority of the Town of La Conner sits at an elevation (MLLW) of 8-13 feet where over the last number of years Town staff have gone from seeing the baseboards of their overwater business district being reached once or twice every four to five years to being reached four to five times a year. These high water events come at great expense to the Town and leave the Town regularly just shy of a major disaster. The Town of La Conner partnered with the Skagit Climate Science Consortium (including USGS, UW Climate Impacts Group and Western Washington University) and …

Guidelines For Mapping Sea Level Rise And Uncertainty, Robert Norheim, Guillaume Mauger

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Sea level rise (SLR) due to anthropogenic global warming will affect coastlines throughout the Salish Sea, but will have particular impacts in places such as estuaries and cities, where there is significant built environment close to sea level (e.g., Tacoma Tideflats/Port of Tacoma). Projections for SLR in the Salish Sea range from 6” to 6’ by the year 2100, with a mean projection of 2’. This uncertainty is challenging for planners and managers who wish to incorporate SLR projections into their planning processes. A team of researchers at the UW Climate Impacts Group (CIG), Washington Sea Grant (WSG), University of …

Potential Interactions Of Sea Level Rise And Sedimentation In The Lower Puyallup River, Jeff Parsons

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Sea level rise and sedimentation have both been documented to contribute to future flooding in the densely developed Lower Puyallup River valley. However, their impacts have only been analyzed in isolation. In the Lower Puyallup River, these processes will interact. As sea level rises, the salt wedge, which is often flushed from leveed river channel, will be increasingly located in the leveed river channel, exacerbating sedimentation issues. Since the reach is no longer dredged, this sedimentation will decrease conveyance and increase the risk of the flooding over time. The interactions of the salt wedge and sedimentation will be nonlinear and …

Understanding Community Perceptions On Sea Level Rise Adaptation, Tina Whitman, Stephanie Buffum, Shannon Davis

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Increased population growth in our region coupled with the flood and erosion hazards posed by a changing climate will increase demand for hard shoreline armoring across the Salish Sea. Decisions by waterfront property owners, shoreline land managers, and coastal communities about how to adapt to the impacts of rising seas will affect how marine shorelines look and function for generations to come. Understanding landowner and community perspectives on sea level rise adaptation strategies is an essential element of both resiliency planning and efforts to protect and restore marine ecosystems. As part of ongoing work to advance habitat friendly adaptation actions …

Sea Level Rise Guidance For Nearshore Habitat Restoration In Puget Sound, Harriet Morgan, Nicole Faghin, Jay Krienitz, Tish Conway-Cranos

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Many agencies, organizations, and communities across Puget Sound are working to restore nearshore habitats from historic degradation to reestablish or maintain the functionality of these ecosystems. Sea level rise is expected to cause increased coastal flooding in low-lying areas and increased storm surge reach in coastal zones. There is widespread recognition that these new threats must be addressed in the siting, design, and maintenance of Puget Sound’s nearshore habitat restoration projects, especially given the limited resources available for restoration. In spite of this, existing information on sea level rise has not yet been synthesized in a way that facilitates incorporation …

An Investigation Of Benthic Recovery And Climate Change Resilience In The Englishman River Estuary, Connie L. Miller Retzer, Thomas G. Reid, Peter K. Dekoning

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

SNAPSHOT: A benthic monitoring program will be added in 2018 to the ongoing Englishman River Estuary recovery study, situated on the east coast of Vancouver Island. This will complement investigations which have been ongoing, prior to and following the removal of a berm during 2017. Changes in salinity patterns, flow regimes, channel morphology, elevation, sediment size, and vegetation distribution are being assessed and these variables will be used to map distinctive areas of the estuary. Benthic samples will be collected from representative areas and monitored over the long term. Relative and total abundance, species diversity, biomass, and various derivatives of …

Fir Island Farm: Estuary Restoration Project: Designing For Climate Change And Uncertainty In Shoreline Flood Risk Reduction And Ecosystem Restoration Projects, David Cline

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

The recently designed and constructed Fir Island Farm – Estuary Restoration Project involves construction of a 1-mile long shoreline levee (dike) setback for restoration of 130 acres of farm land for tidal marsh estuary ecosystem restoration. The key uncertainty, and resiliency, design elements of concern include 1) selection of dike level of protection and design elevations considering climate change sea level rise projections, 2) inclusion of erosion protection measures, 3) farm drainage tailwater conditions and 4) ecosystem marsh vegetated plain future elevations and large woody debris loading conditions. This presentation discusses how site characterization, instrumentation, numerical modeling and monitoring were …

Regional Economic Vulnerability To Sea Level Rise In San Diego County, San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative, Center For The Blue Economy At The Middlebury Institute Of International Studies At Monterey

San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative

The San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative engaged the Center for the Blue Economy of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey to investigate the potential effects from climate change and projected sea level rise, and coastal storms on the economy of San Diego County. The importance of assessing these vulnerabilities arises because San Diego County is the 17th largest metropolitan area in the country and the 5th largest in California. San Diego County has a GDP that is larger than 25 other states.

Anthropocene Sea Level Change: A History Of Recent Trends Observed In The U.S. East, Gulf, And West Coast Regions, John D. Boon, Molly Mitchell, Jon Derek Loftis, David L. Malmquist

Reports

Relative sea level (RSL) observations since 1969 at U.S. tide stations exhibit trends in RSL rise rate and acceleration that vary in response to both global and regional processes. Trend histories display a high degree of similarity between locations in coastal regions that are experiencing similar processes. With the exception of the U.S. Northeast Coast and Alaska,every other coastal location in the continental U.S. has experienced an upturn in RSL rise rate since 2013-2014 despite wide differences in the magnitude and trending direction of RSL acceleration. High RSL acceleration along the U.S. Northeast Coast has trended downward since 2011 while …

The Impact Of Salinity On Mycorrhizal Colonization Of A Rare Legume, Galactia Smallii, In South Florida Pine Rocklands, Klara Scharnagl, Vanessa Sanchez, Eric Von Wettberg

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Objectives: The success of restoration plantings depends on the capacity of transplanted individuals or seeds to establish and reproduce. It is increasingly recognized that restoration success depends quite heavily upon biotic interactions and belowground processes. Under stressful abiotic conditions, such as soils salinized by storm surge and sea level rise, symbiotic interactions with soil microbes such as mycorrhizae may be critically important. In this study, we investigate the impact of salinity on percent colonization of roots by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, in addition to the impacts of this colonization on plant fitness under saline conditions. Fifty Galactia smallii plants from an …

The Increased Risk Of Flooding In Hampton Roads: On The Roles Of Sea Level Rise, Storm Surges, Hurricanes, And The Gulf Stream, Tal Ezer

CCPO Publications

The impact of sea level rise on increased tidal flooding and storm surges in the Hampton Roads region is demonstrated, using ~90 years of water level measurements in Norfolk, Virginia. Impacts from offshore storms and variations in the Gulf Stream (GS) are discussed as well, in view of recent studies that show that weakening in the flow of the GS (daily, interannually, or decadal) is often related to elevated water levels along the U.S. East Coast. Two types of impacts from hurricanes on flooding in Hampton Roads are demonstrated here. One type is when a hurricane like Isabel (2003) makes …