This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Today, as part of the official release of California's Fifth Climate Change Assessment, researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have launched a platform, data and tools that community leaders can use to estimate the block-by-block climate risks and the cost-effectiveness of adaptation solutions for reducing coastal damages. With a new tool called CoSMoS Adapts, California coastal communities can now see how much they could save—in dollars, properties and infrastructure—by using nature-based solutions such as restoring dunes and offshore reefs to protect coastlines.
This year's El Niño threatens to wallop the California coast with historic floods, huge waves and erosion. Investing in adaptation measures such as restoring sand dunes or wetlands could provide communities with millions of dollars in net savings. But thus far, decision-makers have had no way to see or estimate the return on investing in various climate-resilience solutions.
The project, led by the UC Santa Cruz Center for Coastal Climate Resilience (CCCR) in partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), presents analyses and the CoSMoS Adapts framework to evaluate risks and adaptation investments with unprecedented resolution. The team published this research on Oct. 19 in conjunction with the state's climate assessment, a periodic report to study and help people prepare for the impacts of climate change.
The team has also released an interactive online decision-support tool to help policymakers and communities use the research to make local climate-adaptation plans. "Coastal risks are growing rapidly in California, and El Niño events are the tip of that spear," said CCCR Director Michael W. "Communities are asking for our help in managing these climate damages now, and the goal of the CoSMoS Adapts project is to quickly assess risks and solutions and to get that information to communities and state decision-makers." CoSMoS Adapts brings together complex information about ecology, economics, geology and hydrology to predict flooding and erosion, their impacts at the building level, and how much money adaptation projects could save taxpayers.
"These tools are a major advance in characterizing the effectiveness of nature-based infrastructure for coastal protection," said the project's lead researcher, Borja Reguero, associate professor in the Coastal Science and Policy Program at UC Santa Cruz. "We are helping communities adapt in a variety of ecosystems, including dunes, marshes, rocky reefs in the state, but also other solutions like coral reefs, mangrove forests and hybrid infrastructure in other regions." CoSMoS Adapts builds on the previously created USGS Coastal Storm Modeling System (CoSMoS), which predicts the risks of coastal storm damage. The new model includes near-real-time information like recently released data sets on coastal climate across the state.
CCCR has used CoSMoS Adapts to study how climate change will shape coastlines in the future, and how these outcomes will impact people and property in coastal communities. The center then analyzed how different climate adaptations, including nature-based and human-built adaptations, might help or worsen damage due to future floods and erosion—along with estimated price tags for each to compare costs. "Coastal-protection decisions have historically been made with incomplete information," said CCCR Research Director Patrick Barnard.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
