Growing Returns

Selected tag(s): coastal flooding

Ahead of the 2025 General Assembly, here are 3 ways to build flood resilience in Virginia

By Emily Steinhilber / Published: December 10, 2024

Virginia Conservation Network, a statewide coalition of 170 conservation partners, released its 2025 Common Agenda this year, providing a comprehensive overview of Virginia’s environmental policies and priorities to lawmakers and stakeholders. Detailed in the agenda are three key opportunities for lawmakers to continue progress on flood resilience initiatives.

While hurricane season officially ended on November 30, many Virginians in the southwest region are still recovering from the devastating impacts of Hurricane Helene. We stand with those communities as they recover and must remember that now is not the time to lose focus on reducing the risk of increasing climate-driven storms and disasters. According to the agenda’s co-authors from EDF’s Climate Resilient Coasts & Watersheds Virginia program, the following three flood resiliency opportunities should be a critical focus in the coming year.

Posted in Climate Resilience / Also tagged climate resilience, flood disclosure, flood resilience, wetlands | Comments are closed

North Carolina’s coastal wetlands and marshlands are a critical lifeforce for hunters and anglers

By Will McDow / Bio / Published: November 3, 2023

This op-ed was originally published in The Coastland Times.

Last week as Hurricane Lee tracked northward through the Atlantic, North Carolina’s coastal areas saw coastal flooding and beach erosion from storm surge and powerful 17-foot waves. At Cape Hatteras, the storm’s erosion uncovered a buried fence from the 1800s. Elsewhere, roads and neighborhoods experienced flooding. Those effects were felt despite Lee being more than 300 miles off our coast. We were fortunate the monster storm didn’t come any closer to our shores. These tropical systems, along with Nor’easters and other more frequent storm events take a toll on residents, business owners, and our state’s natural resources, including important fish and wildlife habitat.

As we mark National Hunting and Fishing Day, it’s worth taking stock of how increasingly intense and more frequent severe weather events are impacting our marshlands, wetlands, and sounds, which in turn directly – and adversely – affects our coastal communities and our hunting, fishing and outdoor recreational history and traditions. Read More »

Posted in Uncategorized / Also tagged coastal, flooding, wetland, wildlife | Comments are closed

Transformational climate adaptation puts communities at the center. This project shows us how.

By Emily Steinhilber / Published: November 1, 2023

From record-setting rain in New York City to overflowing rivers in Vermont to another hurricane slamming into Florida’s coast – this year alone, we’ve seen historic neighborhoods, communities, local businesses and homes devastated by severe weather events that are becoming more intense and frequent due to climate change. Now more than ever, we need to invest in climate resilience to prepare our communities.

Building resilience isn’t easy, but it’s possible – and the Ohio Creek Watershed project in the City of Norfolk, Virginia is a prime example. Earlier this year, city officials and community members celebrated the completion of a $112 million watershed resilience project that shows transformational climate action is possible when community members have a seat at the decision-making table. Read More »

Posted in Climate Resilience / Also tagged climate resilience, flood resilience, flooding, natural infrastructure, virginia coastal flooding | Comments are closed

It’s nearly one year since Hurricane Ian. Will Florida be ready when another storm hits?

By Rachel Rhode / Published: September 7, 2023

It was just last fall when Hurricane Ian, now classified as a category 5 storm, wreaked havoc across the state of Florida. Residents braced the eye of the storm as Ian made landfall on the state’s southwestern side, and millions more watched as communities, businesses and families changed forever.

Ian nearly decimated Sanibel, a beloved vacation spot known for its array of colorful seashells, while it uprooted trees and tore off roofs in Fort Myers. Not to mention, inland communities suffered from flooding due to excessive rainfall, power lines went down and a series of destructive tornados followed Ian’s path. Not long after, Hurricane Nicole rocked northeast Florida, washing away beaches.

Fast forward one year and where do we stand? Ian, then Nicole, now Idalia – it’s time to ask ourselves if Florida will be ready when another big storm hits. Here at EDF, the Climate Resilient Coasts and Watersheds team is focused on building resilience in Florida and ensuring communities are prepared for the increasingly frequent and severe weather events that are predicted. In recent months, there’s been a lot of progress – but there’s still a long way to go. Let’s look at how far we’ve come, and ways leaders can further prioritize a more resilient future.

Damage and destruction on the west coast of Florida (Naples, Matlacha, Pine Island) caused by Hurricane Ian

Posted in Climate Resilience / Also tagged climate resilience, flood resilience, flooding, Florida, hurricane | Comments are closed

The impact of storm surge barriers on estuaries and ecosystems

By Guest Author / Published: August 22, 2023

By Philip Orton, Research Associate Professor, Stevens Institute of Technology

Due to the increasing frequency and risk of coastal storms and flood disasters, many governments and decision makers are looking to construct gated storm surge barriers.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is recommending these large steel and concrete barriers be built across entrances to 11 U.S. estuaries, enabling closure during storm surges to minimize coastal flooding. However, many scientists are wary of the potential effects these barriers could have on coastal ecosystems, leading many advocates to push for a precautionary approach or their outright rejection.

Published in the scientific journal Earth’s Future and supported in part by funding from Environmental Defense Fund, colleagues and I recently formulated a new research agenda focused on the intersection between the increased use of storm surge barriers and the resulting estuary impacts. These are three key takeaways from our research:

Photo by: Rens Jacobs
Rijkswaterstaat, Data-ICT-Dienst, Beeldarchief Rijkswaterstaat

Posted in Climate Resilience / Also tagged climate resilience, Coasts, flood, flood risk management, flood risk reduction | Comments are closed

FEMA’s community resilience program is in high demand. This guide can help strengthen applications.

By Cathleen Berthelot / Published: March 30, 2022

The recent tornado in Louisiana and wildfires in Texas highlight the toll climate change is having on communities across the country. In 2021, the U.S. experienced 20 climate disasters that each cost at least $1 billion in damages, totaling $145 billion and resulting in the tragic loss of 688 lives.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program is anticipated to significantly increase funding for local and state governments, federally recognized tribes and territories for projects that reduce the impacts from disasters like flooding, wildfires and droughts.

EDF commissioned AECOM, a leading global infrastructure firm, to conduct an analysis of prior BRIC applications to develop best practices and recommendations for securing funding for natural infrastructure projects through the program.

Here are ways this resource can help applicants increase their chances of securing this critical funding.

Posted in Uncategorized / Also tagged BRIC, BRIC program, Coasts, ecosystems, FEMA, infrastructure project, NOAA, wildfires | Comments are closed

The sea is rising faster than ever. How can we prepare?

By Natalie Snider / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: February 15, 2022

NOAA and interagency partners just released an updated technical report, showing that sea levels will rise by up to a foot nationally by 2050, and potentially by up to two feet by 2100 depending on rates of emissions.

While the findings are stark, we have an urgent window of opportunity to increase protection for communities, natural resources and infrastructure across our coasts and watersheds.

Here are five recommendations for how government leaders can increase the resilience of coastal communities before the worst effects of sea level rise take hold.

Posted in Uncategorized / Also tagged Coasts, hurricanes, NJ flooding, NOAA, NY flooding, sea level rise, VA flooding | Comments are closed

Natural infrastructure can address growing climate impacts and save hundreds of billions of dollars annually in the process

By Eric Schwaab / Bio / Published: November 5, 2021

Across the world, more communities are experiencing significant impacts from our changing climate, with severe weather events becoming “the new norm” according to the recently released State of the Climate report. Without action, these disasters could require $20 billion in annual humanitarian aid according to the International Federation of Red Cross.

As world leaders meet this week in Scotland for COP26, they must do everything in their power to reduce emissions and avoid worsening climate scenarios. It is great to see critical attention to natural climate solutions like avoided tropical forest loss front and center at the COP.

At the same time, we must also invest in solutions that can save lives and property from those climate impacts that are already unavoidable. Fortunately, there are solutions that both reduce climate pollution and protect against impacts already being felt. A new report by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) provides insight into how to do that, showing that natural infrastructure can save hundreds of billions of dollars annually in climate adaptation costs, while delivering the same or better outcomes as traditional, hardened infrastructure.

Posted in Uncategorized / Also tagged climate spending, coastal resilience master plan, Coasts, natural infrastructure | Comments are closed

New Army Corps guidelines will expand natural infrastructure to reduce flood risk and more

By Natalie Snider / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: October 19, 2021

This year has brought devastating flooding in the Netherlands, Germany, China, the U.S. and elsewhere. Globally, over 2.2 billion people are exposed to flooding, and that number is growing.

New research indicates the proportion of people living in floodplains since 2000 has increased by 20% to 24%, and climate change is further increasing flood risk with rising sea levels, more intense storms and extreme rainfall events. We need urgent action to protect people from these growing risks.

To this end, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) just released their “International Guidelines on the use of Natural and Nature-Based Features (NNBF) for Flood Risk Management.” Here’s why that’s a big deal.

Posted in Uncategorized / Also tagged Coasts, flood risk, flood risk management, flood risk reduction | Comments are closed

5 ways federal policymakers can bring equity into flood risk reduction

By Dave McLaughlin / Bio / Published: August 18, 2021

Flooding remains the costliest, most deadly natural disaster in the U.S., causing more than $1 trillion in damages since 1980.

As climate change continues to fuel more intense hurricanes, sea level rise and heavier rain events, more Americans are at risk from flooding than ever before. And federal resources to protect communities from flooding are not provided to all communities equitably.

This gap in protection is a direct result of unintentional, but consequential flaws in the current cost-benefit analyses that agencies like the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) use for flood protection projects.

Here are a few ways policymakers and coastal planners can help adjust cost-benefit analyses to expand access to flood protection and achieve more equitable results.

Posted in Uncategorized / Also tagged Coasts, FEMA, flood risk, flooding, natural infrastructure | Comments are closed